Group to Buy Pacific Atoll, Preserve WildernessThe acquisition of the atoll from the Fullard-Leo family of Hawaii is the largest land purchase ever made by the Nature Conservancy.
The Nature Conservancy announced today it would buy the Palmyra Atoll in the central Pacific for $35 million, setting aside thousands of acres of coral reefs and emerald islets to prevent development in the last intact marine wilderness in the U.S. tropics.
The acquisition of the atoll from the Fullard-Leo family of Hawaii is the largest land purchase ever made by the Nature Conservancy, which announced earlier this year that it was committing $1 billion through its Campaign for Conservation to protect natural areas in America and abroad.
The group, which has worked since 1951 to protect pristine sanctuaries across the globe, said the atoll 1,052 miles south of Hawaii had been sought for development as a casino or nuclear waste repository.
The family resisted such efforts, allowing 1 million nesting birds and rare marine species to live in what a family statement described as a "place time forgot."
"We protected Palmyra's wildlife and natural habitat for nearly 80 years," the Fullard-Leo family said in the statement. "It gives one a sense of well-being. The time has come to pass on that responsibility."
Palmyra Atoll consists of 680 acres of land and 15,512 acres of pristine coral reefs, emerald islets and turquoise lagoons. It is the only nesting habitat for migratory seabirds and shorebirds within 450,000 square miles of ocean, the Nature Conservancy said.
"As the only privately owned U.S. possession, Palmyra represents the last remaining opportunity to protect an undeveloped, uninhabited, pristine tropical marine ecosystem in the U.S. tropics," said John Sawhill, president and chief executive officer of the Conservancy.
The Palmyra purchase is one of the first under the Conservancy's Campaign for Conservation program. The deal gives the conservationists until the first quarter of 2001 to raise funds and close on the property.
Reachable now mainly by boat, the atoll was used by the military during World War II as a refueling and naval air base. The owners had to fight a legal battle all the way to the Supreme Court to keep the atoll from the government.
Long the subject of pirate and buried treasure folklore, the atoll was the setting for a 1974 murder mystery novel by Vincent Bugliosi, "And the Sea Will Tell," and a 1991 movie.
In addition to raising money to buy the atoll, the Conservancy said it has begun work on a management plan for protecting and enhancing wildlife habitats and determining how to manage public access to Palmyra.