The tiny Pacific island nation of Niue has come up with a novel way to protect its waters from illegal fishing and plastic waste – it will ask people to sponsor parts of its ocean.

Niue’s premier Dalton Tagelagi has said individuals or companies can pay $148 (£120) to protect 1sq/km (around 250 acres) of ocean for a period of 20 years.

The island hopes to raise more than $18m (£14.6m) from the scheme by selling 127,000 sq/km units, representing the 40% of its waters that form a no-take marine protected area.

A no-take protected area is where removing or destroying natural or cultural resources is prohibited.

The sponsorship money would be used to protect the waters from illegal fishing and plastic waste.

Unregulated fishing can deplete fish stocks which then cannot replenish, while plastics can be ingested by or entangle marine wildlife.

Human-caused climate change has also led to warmer and more acidic oceans, altering ecosystems for underwater species.

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In an interview before launching the scheme in New York on Tuesday, Mr Tagelagi said people have always had a close connection with the sea.

“Niue is just one island in the middle of the big blue ocean,” Mr Tagelagi said. “We are surrounded by the ocean, and we live off the ocean. That’s our livelihood.”

He said Niueans inherited and learned about the ocean from their forefathers and they want to be able to pass it on to the next generation in sustainable health.

Most fishing in Niue is to sustain local people, although there are some small-scale commercial operations and occasional offshore industrial-scale fishing, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation.

Mr Tagelagi said: “Because of all the illegal fishing and all the other activities at the moment, we thought that we should be taking the lead, to teach others that we’ve got to protect the ocean.”

Niue is especially vulnerable to rising sea levels threatening its land and freshwater, and the island is at risk of more intense tropical storms charged by warmer air and waters.

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With a population of just 1,700 people, Niue has acknowledged it needs outside help.

It’s one of the smallest countries in the world, dwarfed by an ocean territory 1,200 times larger than its land mass.

Under the plan, the sponsorship money – called Ocean Conservation Commitments – will be administered by a charitable trust.

Niue will buy 1,700 sponsorship units, representing one for each of its citizens.

Other launch donors include philanthropist Lyna Lam and her husband Chris Larsen, who co-founded blockchain company Ripple, and US-based non-profit Conservation International, which helped set up some technical aspects of the scheme.

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