Our Common Wealth 670 (OCW 670) community advocacy group (Saipan, CNMI) wishes to call attention to the urgent concern over the increased militarization of the land, surrounding seas and air in the Marianas archipelago. These concerns are of particular importance in light of President Biden’s Executive Orders, Executive Order on Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to the Climate Crisis, E.O. 13990, 86 Fed. Reg. 7037 (Jan. 20, 2021),Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, E.O. 14008, 86 Fed. Reg. 7619 (Jan. 27, 2021), and the Administration’s plan for Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities through the Federal Government, E.O. 13985, 86 Fed. Reg. 7009 (Jan. 20, 2021). We want to ensure proper oversight over military planning that respects local laws and engages meaningfully with the Indigenous peoples of the Marianas. In the midst of the pandemic, the U.S. Military continues its expansion throughout our lands and waters, and has increasingly left our communities vulnerable to increased risk, environmental contamination, and resource damage. While the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) does not host a military base, our islands remain integral to U.S. defense strategies, forward deployment, and troop readiness in the Pacific; readiness which already serves significant national interests while bringing considerable costs to our local environmental, cultural, and human resources. 

The current and proposed levels of military training and testing simply cannot be supported by our island ecosystems and people without long-term irreparable damage to our environments, cultural traditions, and ways of life. Our community has struggled to maintain an active voice at the table during the Department of Defense’s (DoD) many environmental planning processes that occur throughout the Marianas. In light of President Biden’s recent executive orders seeking to reestablish US commitments to environmental justice, we call for a de-escalation of damaging environmental planning and exercises in the region, especially within the enormously impactful Mariana Islands Training and Testing (MITT) Study Area.