Analysis: Tokelau – made up of three atolls with a total population of about 1500 people – benefited hugely from joining a Pacific tuna cartel in 2012.
The impact of being part of the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) was so significant that revenue generated from its lucrative fishery quickly accounted for as much as 40 percent of the national budget for this non-self-governing territory of New Zealand.
But all that came to a halt early this year, when the PNA terminated Tokelau’s participation in PNA’s Vessel Day Scheme (VDS) that manages the purse seine industry in Pacific waters, where over half the world’s tuna is caught.
Up until now, the termination of Tokelau’s participation with the eight-member PNA has been shrouded in mystery. New Zealand government officials have repeatedly stated that “Tokelau is seeking readmission to the PNA Vessel Day Scheme” and that New Zealand supports Tokelau’s efforts.
But documents obtained this week, including correspondence between Tokelau and PNA fisheries leaders, tell an entirely different story, with one former Tokelau leader citing New Zealand’s “interference” in Tokelau’s fisheries management that undermined Tokelau’s participation in the PNA.
In response to an inquiry, a spokesperson from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) said on Thursday: “There has been no material change to the management of Tokelau’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and offshore fisheries.
“While New Zealand remains responsible for Tokelau’s EEZ under international law, Tokelau has consistently managed the day-to-day operation of its offshore fisheries within the EEZ. This has not changed.”
Tokelauan and PNA fisheries officials tell a different story. They describe New Zealand action starting in 2024 to increasingly oversee Tokelau’s Fisheries Management Agency – action that Tokelau officials themselves pointed out to the PNA because it threatened the basis on which Tokelau, as a territory of New Zealand, had been accepted into the PNA in 2012.
All eight members of the PNA, established in 1982, are independent Pacific countries.
“Tokelau’s participation in the PNA arrangements had been premised on its ability to exercise a sufficient degree of operational autonomy over the management of fisheries within its Exclusive Economic Zone,” Dr Transform Aqorau, the founding CEO of the PNA Office in Majuro, said this week.
“This autonomy had enabled Tokelau to participate directly in the Vessel Day Scheme and related PNA arrangements, while also supporting its aspirations for greater economic independence,” he said.
“However, the position changed when New Zealand increased its oversight of Tokelau’s fisheries management and operations. Tokelau advised the PNA that this had materially constrained its ability to make independent decisions concerning its fisheries.”
In 2023, at the formal opening of the Parties to the Nauru Agreement headquarters building in Majuro, founding PNA Office CEO Dr Transform Aqorau congratulated fisheries leaders from the region for the organisation’s unprecedented accomplishment of raising tuna revenue generated from the fishery US$60 million to $500 million annually, while sustainably managing the tuna fishery.
RNZ Pacific / Giff Johnson
PNA-related officials note that New Zealand officials have been lobbying PNA members to reinstate Tokelau since its membership was ended early this year.
But Aqorau said “the principal obstacle is not Tokelau itself”.
“Tokelau has been a valued and respected participant and has benefited significantly from its involvement in the VDS. The difficulty arises from New Zealand’s intervention in the management to Tokelau’s exclusive economic zone and the conditions it appears to have imposed on Tokelau’s administration and delegation.”
Kiribati Fisheries and Ocean Resources Minister Ribanataake Tiwau, who chaired the PNA in 2025, confirmed this in a November 2025 letter to PNA ministers from the eight island nation members.
“Tokelau’s participation with PNA was related to New Zealand having allowed Tokelau, at the time, increased autonomy in its fisheries management, with a view to Tokelau moving toward economic independence,” said Tiwau. “It seems now, however, that New Zealand has changed its policy approach from allowing Tokelau increased authority, back to its status as a non-self-governing territory of New Zealand.”
PNA leaders in late 2024 and again in 2025 gave Tokelau more time to try to resolve this issue with New Zealand in order for it to continue its status as a party to PNA’s Vessel Day Scheme.
“Despite our efforts, Tokelau has been unable to resolve these issues,” then-Tokelau Fisheries Minister Otinielu Tuumuli said in a 13 November 2025 letter to the PNA chairman Tiwau from Kiribati.
“New Zealand has recently increased its oversight of fisheries management and operations within the Tokelau EEZ. This development has further limited Tokelau’s ability to make independent decisions regarding its fisheries.
“This means that for Tokelau’s continued participation in the Vessel Day Scheme (VDS), New Zealand will require a level of access to the VDS, facilitated either directly by New Zealand officials or through a Tokelau employee,” the then-Tokelau fisheries minister said.
“I want to clarify, this is not how Tokelau has been operating to date – the Fisheries Management Agency and its advisors have worked to distance themselves from New Zealand officials’ interference.”
Following the letters from the Tokelau fisheries minister and the PNA chair, Kiribati’s fisheries minister Ribanataake Tiwau, a special meeting of the PNA on 27 November 2025 reached agreement to draft a termination letter for Tokelau’s participation in the PNA at the earliest opportunity. It happened earlier this year.
The then-fisheries minister of Tokelau, who retired from parliament earlier this year, said this situation with New Zealand had led to a wholesale turnover of staff at Tokelau’s Fisheries Management Agency at the end of 2025.
Feleti Tulafono, the long-time director of the Fisheries Management Agency, retired at the end of 2025 and the two fisheries advisors who had been involved with Tokelau since it took up membership in the PNA in 2012 also wrapped up their service to the agency, said Tuumuli.
Parties to the Nauru Agreement fisheries ministers met for their annual meeting in Majuro in June. They are pictured with Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine, center, and to her right, PNA Office CEO Dr Sangaa Clark.
Supplied / Chewy Lin
Aqorau said the issue of a country outside of the PNA group accessing internal information and data is a non-starter for all the parties.
“The PNA is an arrangement among Pacific Island resource owners and depends upon members being able to discuss commercially, politically and strategically sensitive matters in confidence,” he said.
“PNA countries will be extremely reluctant to reopen Tokelau’s participation if doing so provides New Zealand, whether directly or indirectly, with access to internal PNA information and decision-making.”
All of this is “regrettable,” Aqorau said, “because Tokelau itself has contributed positively to the PNA and has derived considerable economic and institutional benefits from the VDS. The decision was therefore not intended as a punishment of Tokelau. Rather, it reflected the practical reality that Tokelau could no longer participate in the same autonomous manner in which it had operated previously.”
But the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade suggests the situation is a matter solely between Tokelau and the PNA. “We understand the Government of Tokelau is seeking readmission to the PNA Vessel Day Scheme as a priority,” said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesperson Thursday.
“New Zealand is fully supportive of Tokelau’s efforts to regain their full participation in the Scheme.” The spokesperson added that the New Zealand government “remains committed to its longstanding support of Tokelau’s participation in the PNA Vessel Day Scheme, which provides a significant source of income for Tokelau.”
Aqorau commented on a statement from New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade that Tokelau’s participation was “terminated” and that New Zealand stood ready to support Tokelau in reversing the decision.
“I would … say that this presents only part of the picture,” Aqorau said.
“Tokelau’s participation was terminated because the conditions that had made its participation possible had fundamentally changed. Those changes resulted from New Zealand’s increased control over Tokelau’s fisheries management, not from any hostility by PNA members towards Tokelau.”
The headquarters in Majuro for the Parties to the Nauru Agreement that represents eight independent nations and included, until early 2026, Tokelau.
RNZ Pacific / Giff Johnson
The former PNA Office CEO says he doubts PNA members will agree to Tokelau’s return unless New Zealand “restores genuine operational autonomy” to its fishery sector.
“The lobbying (by New Zealand officials) may continue, but the issue goes directly to the integrity, sovereignty and security of the VDS itself,” he said.
Tokelau has never publicly disclosed its VDS income, but with an allocation estimated at 1000 vessel days per year, available pricing indicates Tokelau earned at least US$8 million per year, New Zealand journalist Michael Field said in an article posted to The Pacific Newsroom on Facebook recently.
This amount was over 40 percent of its annual budget, Field said.
“For more than a decade, Tokelau used its tuna-rich waters to build a path toward economic independence,” Field wrote, adding it appeared “New Zealand has quietly reversed that course.”
“At stake is control of a vast Pacific fishery, millions in revenue, and uncomfortable questions about whether colonial habits ever really disappeared.”
