French Polynesia has signed an agreement to construct the world’s first floating city in the southern Pacific.
The Pacific island state’s memorandum of understanding with California’s Seasteading Institute outlines objectives the institute must meet to get a possible go-ahead for its first “seastead” community, off the island of Tahiti.
They are whether it will benefit the local economy and whether it can avoid damaging the environment.
Randolph Hencken, Seasteading’s executive director, believes that ultimately the 118-island floating city will benefit the Polynesian government, saying, “We are confident there will be both a direct and an indirect benefit for them economically.”
He added that the city would be considered under the governmental authority of French Polynesia and France.
“They are a tourist-based economy and they’re excited to bring us in because we are a technology-based idea.”
For five years the Seasteading Institute has been developing ways to build “permanent, innovative communities floating at sea.”
For a start, it will be in French Polynesia and protected from high seas. Seastead plans involve them being in international waters to create a libertarian utopia free of landlubbers’ laws.
Hencken told the BBC he is confident the authorities will grant them “leeway” to govern themselves and their “special economic sea zone.”
