Comunidad del pacífico en perspectiva - Volumen 2

OCEAN RESOURCES AND OCEAl'l 'fECHNOLOGIES lN 'CHE P ACIFIC The use of certain resources and the techniques that make it possi– ble may require longer-range planning than is normal in gover– ment agencies and corporations. The time scale of adopting them may influence rates and extent of economic development. Lastly, one must, it possible, try to ascertain the longer-range implications of bringing resources inlO use and the technological changes con– nected thereto. Can one justify certain decisions to the silent majo– rity of future generations? Three or fíve year plans are the rule; rarely does one find pro– per emphasis in planning also on long-range effects and on the re– quisite attention to making a technology as responsive to human and social as to economic needs. We believe there should be at– tempts on the parts of nations and groups of nations in the Pa– cific, such as ASEAN and the Pacific Comunity through their Com– mission or their Forum, to analyze patterns of future needs in the light of possible resource technologies that migh satisfy these needs, keeping iI}. mind also social and envÍronmental constraints. Other entities that may usefully participate in such analyses are the Uni– versity of HawaÍÍ-based Law of the Sea Institute and the Pacific Science Association as well as tlte East-West Center. Truly forward– looking planning and assessment units are rare yet, even in univer– sities, let alone governments. Though they may consist of few per– sons (for reasons of training), their creation might help developing nations avoid some of the mistakes that developed nations now admit to have made by not having looked far enough ahead. Whateaver the alternative futures that may be conjured up by these and similar efforts, a scenario of international cooperation is in the common interest. In the Pacific, as elsewhere, the coopera– ting units are and will be nation states with some objectives of cooperation best discharged through regional organizations. (Migra– tory fishery management was mentioned as a case in point.) Some interactions among Pacific nations will transcend even the regions and they may pave the way lO forging a Pacific community. We believe that assessing the resource potentials and the technologies related to them, as they were cursorily described by us here, in a long- and medium-range mode, would also contribute to the forma– tion of such an, albeit loose. community that may one day arise. 145