Will Micronesia Be the First Nationwide Park?    • Share   •
Read Later Specialist Stock / Corbis  Staghorn coral off the
coast of Chuuk island in the Federated States of Micronesia
Imagine a protected park half the size of the continental U.S.,
covering a sea-life-loaded swath of the Pacific Ocean and the
607 tropical islands therein. The park's inhabitants live mostly
in traditional villages and still remember how to do things much
of the world has forgotten, such as make clothes from scratch
and live off the land. This park would, in fact, encompass an
entire country — the Federated States of Micronesia (F.S.M.) —
and if the archipelago nation pulls it off, it will be the first
of its kind in the world. "It's a visionary, radical concept,"
says Howard Rice, an instructor at the College of Micronesia who
came up with the idea. "There's never been a world park. It
doesn't exist in the dictionary. It doesn't exist anywhere."  If
successful, Micronesia will be the first nation to become a
wholly protected are