Papahanaumokuakea—this national monument is now longer than its name

The area of Papahanaumokuakea National Monument in the Pacific Ocean has a long history of US federal protection efforts dating back to Theodore Roosevelt’s creation of the Hawaiian Island Bird Reservation in 1909 and continuing through subsequent administrations, including those of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s and President Bill Clinton in 2000. In 2006, President George W. Bush designated the waters of Northwestern Hawaiian Islands a national monument under the Antiquities Act and the site was renamed Papahanaumokuakea the following year. Under President Obama, the site was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2010, and just recently he expanded the protected area to make it the largest protected area in the world.

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Obama creates the largest protected place on the planet, off Hawaii

By Juliet Eilperin

The Washington Post

August 26, 2016