Palacios signs EO establishing CNMI Green Growth Initiative

Gov. Arnold I. Palacios signed on Friday an executive order establishing the CNMI Green Growth Initiative that he co-chairs with Northern Marianas College president Dr. Galvin Deleon Guerrero.

Palacios’ signing of Executive Order No. 2024-225 officially launched the CNMI Green Growth Initiative at the NMC-Cooperative Research, Extension, and Education Services (CREES) Agriculture Research Station in As Perdido.

“So today we will announce the official launching of the CNMI’s Green Growth Initiative and embarked on a new journey to achieve a sustainable and regenerative future for our Commonwealth,” Palacios said.

Palacios announced that he and co-chair NMC President Dr. Deleon Guerrero will establish a working group to create and implement the Green Growth Strategies for action.

Deleon Guerrero appointed NMC-CREES interim dean Patricia Coleman to be NMC’s lead for the working group, while Palacios appointed former lawmaker Christina Marie E. Sablan, who is the specialist assistant for climate policy and planning, to co-lead the working group.

Palacios said Green Growth Initiative is not just about changing the world development, it is also changing the way people think about development.

“We’re changing our mindset. In everything we do, we must think how can we do better for the next generation and the next generation thereafter,” the governor said.

He said since 2015, nations around the world have committed to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and 17 Sustainable Development Goals to mobilize global efforts to end poverty, improve health and education, protect systems, tackle the climate crisis, and create an equitable, peaceful, and resilient, and prosperous nature.

Palacios said the CNMI had embraced those global Sustainable Development goals and applied them on own island context through the Comprehensive Sustainable Development Plan 2021-2030.

He said the Green Growth Initiative is about translating the plan and aspirations into action and bringing tangible results to the people and the community.

“It’s about committing ourselves to assume achieving global sustainable development goals through locally different solutions,” Palacios said.

He said the Office of the Governor and the NMC will lead this Initiative, with NMC will be the CNMI’s Green Growth Hub.

Palacios said in line with the launching of the Green Growth Initiative he is proud to announce the CNMI’s intent to officially join the Local2030 Islands Network as a government partner and island member.

Through this initiative, the governor said, they will connect with other island communities around the world in setting local sustainable growth goals in strengthening the partnership, tracking progress and implementing concrete solutions.

Dr. Deleon Guerrero said in his speech that “helpless” was how he felt over five years ago when Super Typhoon Yutu was breaking down the front door of their tiny apartment in Garapan.

Deleon Guerrero said he kept watching and hearing that door pounding and pounding as if it were just about to fly through the air.

He said in the middle of all of that, he’ll never forget his eight-year old daughter crying, asking if they were going to be okay.

“I didn’t know what to tell her because I didn’t know if we were going to be okay,” the NMC president recalled.

He said he wanted so hard to protect his little girl and his family and for so much fear and uncertainty, he felt absolutely hopeless for a moment–at least.

Deleon Guerrero said he moved her daughter and everyone into one secured room and did everything he could to help his family make it through the night.

“I placed towels at the foot of the door to keep water from leaking in. I opened up some snacks to distract us a bit, and I lit a few more candles to brighten the mood. Then I sang to my princess to comfort her, to comfort my wife, to comfort myself. And in that moment, I didn’t feel so helpless,” he said.

Deleon Guerrero said neither all the people after the typhoon despite all the buildings that had been leveled, vital infrastructure that had been destroyed, and lives that had been ended, the people did not succumb to the worst nature.

“We didn’t fight for gas. We did not turn on each other. Instead, we came together to recover, to rebuild and to regenerate,” Deleon Guerrero said.

He said from that moment to this day, the people proved that they are not helpless.

The president said the official launch of the CNMI’s Green Growth Initiative is a testament to the people’s legacy as a community.

He said by committing to the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the people in the Northern Marianas tell the world that they are stepping up in a big way to help solve those problems.

“We tell the world that we are co- stewards and we will do everything we can to save our planet and save each other,” Deleon Guerrero said.

He said at NMC, they whole heartedly embrace this mindset with their mission that was approved by the Board of Regents.

The president said they are carrying out all these stewardship initiatives as they continue to rebuild their campus, meet the workforce needs of the economy and help the people live meaningful and productive lives.

“We, the NMC Proa Tribe are proving once again that we are not helpless. We are agents of change. We are stewards of a better tomorrow,” he said.

NMC-CREES Interim Dean Coleman in her remarks pointed to the location of their regenerative agriculture demonstration site that contains plants for food, plants for medicinal use and ornamental plants.

Coleman said it was planted largely by volunteers who are willing to relearn and shift their paradigm about how to plant food based on regenerative principles.

She said regenerative agriculture expert Dr. Craig Elevitch has worked and almost everything planted at the demonstration site.

Coleman said this regenerative agriculture plot doesn’t just represent optimize ecologically sound ways of producing food, but also represents connecting people with nature and with each other.

“Because that is really the heart of our work. Regenerating our island to the people who love and care for it. Our vision for the Green Growth Initiative is that it will transcend political divisions and divisiveness and bring about vitality,” she said.

Coleman noted that one of the heads of Federal Emergency Management Agency commented and stated after Typhoon Yutu that in his 30 plus year career, he has never seen a community so willing to give and help despite how much they’d lost.

“We are the community that took care of each other and took action during the pandemic, resulting in having one of the lowest death rates in the world and definitely in the nation,” she said.

Former lawmaker Sablan echoed Dr. Deleon Guerrero that there is a lot of work ahead.

“The good news is that it’s hopeful work and joyful work. The kind of work that feeds the soul,” she said.

Sablan said it is so fitting that this NMC Agriculture Research Station is the setting for the Green Growth launch because “this is a joyful place.”

She said a few months ago, she participated in one of NMC-CREES regenerative agroforestry workshops with Dr. Elevitch, in which she experienced first hand the joy and the pride that comes from learning how to grow food in a way that gives back to the earth.

Sablan said Dr. Elevitch promised that they would work with nature to transform that plot into a diverse and abundant food forest.

She said she was skeptical, but they were enthusiastic.

“And I’m so pleased to see that the saplings and seeds that we planted just a few months ago, they’re in that far right corner of the forest. They are growing and thriving today. And I’ve already signed up for the next workshop,” she said.