The Republic of Palau (Palau) is an archipelago comprising more than 340 islands roughly 885 kilometers east of the Philippines in the western Pacific Ocean.
With a population of approximately 20,000 and land area of 490 square kilometers, Palau is one of the smallest countries in the world. The tropical marine waters surrounding this small island developing state are vast and Palau’s exclusive economic zone extends over 616,029 square kilometers.
These waters are home to the most diverse coral reef fauna in Micronesia and the highest density of tropical marine biota of any comparable geographic region.
Though Babeldaob Island is the largest island in Palau and the second largest in Micronesia, the island has been isolated from modern development until recently.
With the completion of an 85 kilometer road circumnavigating the island in 2007, and the relocation of the government capital to Melekeok state in Babeldaob in 2006, the population and use of land on Babeldoab are expected to change dramatically.
In anticipation of rapid development on Babeldaob and associated sedimentation of the surrounding coral reefs, the Palau Conservation Society (PCS) and its partners are fostering an ecosystem-based approach to improving “ridge-to-reef management of coastal resources” on the island. In practice, this has largely involved collecting and feeding scientific information into land use planning and other policy processes at the state and national levels.
Overall, this EBM initiative may be characterized as a sustainable development project focused on land use planning with the intention of mitigating upland development threats to coral reefs and associated human communities.
Phase I Mission
The Babeldaob Island Ecosystem-Based Management Initiative in the Republic of Palau in the tropical western Pacific Ocean seeks to mitigate upland development threats to the marine environment by promoting science-based land use planning and other policies directed at sustainable development.
This project intends to use EBM principles to guide development such that people and communities can prosper with minimal impact to Babeldaob’s ecosystems. The overarching goals of Phase I of the EBM cycle (2006-2008) were to “foster healthy coastal communities and ecosystems on Babeldaob Island” and “develop a collaborative process to improve natural resource management for Babeldaob Island."
Phase I Objectives
The partners identified four objectives:
Phase II Mission
For Phase II of the EBM cycle (2009-2012), the overall project vision was refined to “healthy Babeldaob ecosystems that supports culturally and environmentally appropriate low impact development guided by scientific knowledge and strong alliances that benefit the health and well-being of the people of Palau."
To move toward this vision, EBM partners identified specific goals for Phase II that relate to four conservation targets and the “development threat”:
Phase II Objectives
The key objectives for Phase II are to:
Lead Organizations
Palau Conservation Society (PCS)
This effort is led by the Palau Conservation Society (PCS), a local non-government organization established in 1994 with a mission “to work with the community to preserve the nation’s unique natural environment and perpetuate its conservation ethic for the economic and social benefit of present and future generations of all Palauans and for the enjoyment and education of all.” PCS is comprised of 12 full-time staff members that work with communities to achieve its mission. PCS engages in education, research, and management activities that contribute to sustainable development policies at the national and state level.
Key Parties
The initiative involves the collective participation of five key partner organizations:
The Babeldaob Island Ecosystem-Based Management Initiative in the Republic of Palau is implemented by a multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral “EBM partnership” comprised of organizations involved in research, resource management, decision-making, communications and education in Palau. The effort is led by the Palau Conservation Society (PCS), a national non-government organization established in 1994.
EBM Coordinator at PCS
An EBM Coordinator based at PCS is responsible for “pulling together the researchers, resource managers and other stakeholders, coordinating the research components [of the initiative], ensuring that research results are accessible and shared, enabling joint analysis of the research, and developing avenues of communication and coordination among the different stakeholder groups in Palau.”
EBM Core Group
In addition, there is an “EBM core group” made up of one or more representatives of the organizations in the EBM partnership, including:
During Phase I of the EBM effort, this group facilitated cooperation among stakeholders and was tasked with coordinating data management and analysis, developing conceptual models to track targets and conditions, document EBM rules and approaches, and form the basis for EBM in Palau. Neither the core group nor the partnership has been granted formal authority; however, the Environmental Quality Protection Board and the Bureau of Arts and Culture have regulatory authority pertaining to permits for development.
Research and Learning Coordinator
In Phase II, a “research and learning coordinator” assisted the EBM Core Group with developing practical and useful data for resource managers, conducting analyses that integrate biological and social data for decision-making and policy, conceptualizing and developing communications products, and ensuring that relevant recommendations and best management practices are integrated with the various planning processes currently in place.
The main impetus for the Babeldaob Island Ecosystem-Based Management Initiative was the construction of an 85 kilometer road circumnavigating Palau’s largest landmass, which was expected to bring with it development activities and demographic and land use changes.
The Palau Conservation Society (PCS) and its partners saw an opportunity to implement effective resource-use policies and practices before broad-scale development began. At the same time, the EBM partners recognized the dearth of data available to inform basic resource use decisions on Babeldaob.
The EBM project offered partners an opportunity to collect social and ecological data that could be used to balance “sustainable development with the need to prevent the loss of biodiversity from habitat destruction and sedimentation of the surrounding lagoon and coral reefs resulting from land degradation and run-off."
Conducting EBM activities in three areas, which encompass different levels of existing development - low, medium and high, “will provide information that will lead to the development of guidelines and recommendations for the rest of the island, as well as for Palau as a whole."
One partner explains, “the Palau EBM project basically came out of a series of discussions between [The David and Lucile Packard Foundation], PCS, the primary stakeholders in the EBM project, […] [and] it was Packard that sort of initiated the project as a cohesive, pre-planned, very organized initiative."
The Packard Foundation saw Babeldaob as an ideal site to “demonstrate EBM” due to the multiple and diverse relationships between biological, physical and human processes; the island’s high biodiversity; the small-scale of the island that allows testing of the EBM approach across a large range of coastal ecosystems; the presence of serious environmental threats and management issues; and anticipated community support grounded in a cultural history of ecological knowledge and management. Another expectation of the project was that “what is done in Palau could influence activities throughout Micronesia.
The Ecosystem
The volcanic island of Babeldaob constitutes 80 percent of the Republic of Palau’s landmass and is the second largest island in Micronesia (Kitalong 2008; Sakuma 2004a). The island is 37 kilomters long and 15 kilometers at its widest, containing 33 square kilometers of mangroves and bordering a 500-square kilometer lagoon.
The tropical ocean surrounding Babeldaob contains a barrier reef that merges with a fringing reef and a submerged barrier reef, which together boast coral diversity comparable to that of the highest diversity areas in Philippines, Indonesia and Australia.
Tourism is the main source of revenue for Palau. In 2006, 82,397 people visited the small archipelago, the vast majority of whom came to dive, snorkel and tour the famous Rock Islands. Babeldaob houses 30 percent of Palau’s population, or 5,977 people.
About one-quarter of this population is concentrated in the island’s southernmost state of Airai. The rest of Babeldaob’s population lives in coastal villages scattered throughout the island, generally leading subsistence or semi-subsistence lifestyles; however, there is relatively little agricultural production on Babeldaob due to its poor soil quality.
Most fishing takes place in lagoons and outer reef slopes, and commercial fishing is primarily limited to foreign vessels fishing for tuna in the exclusive economic zone for sale and processing outside of Palau.
Threats
In 2006, the government capital was relocated to Melekeok state in Babeldaob and in 2007 an 85 kilometer circumnavigating road was constructed on the island.
Both developments are expected to change the population and use of land on Babeldaob dramatically. Sedimentation due to poorly planned terrestrial development has been identified as the major threat to coral reefs and associated human communities in Babeldaob.
Thus, the Babeldaob Island Ecosystem-Based Management Initiative is focused on preempting expected threats to a relatively healthy social-ecological system on this island. The project was initiated because EBM partners were concerned that the newly constructed compact road would open Babeldaob to poorly planned development in a context where there are not comprehensive formal or traditional land use policies nor capacity and technical expertise at the state level for environmental planning.
The Babeldaob Island Ecosystem-Based Management Initiative in the Republic of Palau in the tropical western Pacific Ocean seeks to mitigate upland development threats to the marine environment by promoting science-based land use planning and other policies directed at sustainable development.
To accomplish its objectives, the following strategies are being implemented by EBM partners:
The EBM initiative’s success will be assessed through monitoring a suite of indicators developed for ecosystem health from the ridge to the reef, including indicators for:
During the first several years of the EBM initiative in Palau, progress has been made in a few key areas:
Factors facilitating EBM implementation in this context include:
Challenges to EBM implementation in Palau include:
Through its activities of the last five years, the Palau EBM effort has learned:
Palau Conservation Society Website: http://www.palauconservation.org/cms/index.php
Belau National Museum Website: http://www.belaunationalmuseum.org/
Palau International Coral Reef Center Website: http://www.picrc.org/
Palau Bureau of Arts and Culture Webpage: http://www.spc.int/prism/country/PW/stats/PalauGov/Executive/Ministries/MCCA/AAC.htm