Tiny Island Teaches the World How to Protect Reefs

CHRISTOPHER PALA

THE ASIAN AGE, BOMBAY, 28 APR 2007

NGIWAL, Palau — Sitting on abench in a thatched hut in this villageon palau's main Island of Babeldaob,Isllas Yano, 57, looked over the bayhe has fished professionally since hewas 15 and recalled the fishing prac-tices of his boyhood.

"We fished certain fish in certainseasons," he recalled. "Each reefcould only be fished by people from acertain village." Village elders wouldrotate fishing on reefs, he recounted,to husband their slow-growing mainsource of food.

Starting in the 1980s, populationgrowth, new seafood markets in Asiaand modern ways of thinking washedaway the elders' authority and rules.

"Outsiders started coming into ourreefs, they used scuba gear and dy-namite, and the fish got smaller andfewer," Mr. Yano said.

In the world's tropical seas, full-grown snappers and groupers be-came as rare as full-grown tuna orcod elsewhere. In Ngiwal, the reac-tion was not long in coming. Onceagain, the elders ruled.. In 1994, they banned fishing in a

small area of reef that was partly ac-cessible on foot. The village women,who traditionally gather shellfish atlow tide, noticed how the fish becamemore plentiful there in a few years.The reef became locally famous,and other villages started to do thesame.

Today, Palau, a tiny island state965 kilometers east of the Philippinesthat is internationally known as a sitefor recreational diving, is at the fore-front of a worldwide movement toban fishing in key reefs to allow thereturn of prized species. It now pro-tects a patchwork of reefs and lagoonwaters amounting to 1,200 squarekilometers.

At a November 2005 meeting of theUnited States Coral Reef Task forcein Koror (the Republic of Palau, in-dependent since 1994, still qualifiesfor certain domestic financing fromthe United States), President TommyRemengesau Jr., probably the world'smost conservation-minded head ofstate, started his so-called Microne-sian Challenge: a call to the rest ofthe region to set aside for conserva-tion 30 percent of coastal waters and20 percent of the land area by 2020.Palau already has that amount.

"Trealized you couldn't have devel-

opment on one side and conservationon the other, and see which would out-wit the other," he said an in interviewin Koror, the commercial capital. "Ifyou cared for the future of the coun-try, you had to bring them together,"so the nongovernmental organiza-tions became "an integral part of ourplanning."

Palau's challenge has come at atime when reef-fishing communitiesaround the world are discovering thatsetting aside no-fishing areas yields

dividends in a few years because theresurgent fish populations spill overinto areas where fishing is allowed.

Without as much support fromtheir national government as Pa-lauans enjoy, local authorities in Fijihave raised the number of no-takezones to 189 from 2 in 10 years.

Two years after Ratu Aisea Ka-tonivere, a traditional chief, imposeda no-take zone, "The fish are closerand bigger," he said. "They are com-ing back; it's a miracle." Mr. Katoni-vere, who rules over 7,000 peoplein the Great Sea Reef, the world'sthird-largest barrier reef, spoke inan interview during a conservationconference in Honolulu.

Other participants said that in theSolomon Islands, the protected areashave gone to 30 from 2 in five years,and in Vanuatu, they exceed 100.

The Micronesia Challenge hasresonated far beyond Micronesia.Five months after Mr. Remengesauissued it, President Susilo BangbangYudhoyono of Indonesia pledged toincrease marine protected areas to10 million hectares from 7 millionhectares by 2010. In the Antilles, thestates of Grenada, the Bahamas, Be-lize and the Grenadines, which havealready protected some reef areas,have committed themselves to a Ca-ribbean Challenge and are trying topersuade the other nations to makesimilar pledges, according to BillRaynor, the Nature Conservancy'sdirector for Micronesia.

In 1998, a so-called El Nino event

involving major sea current changessent unusually warm water to severalcountries around the world, causingthe corals there to turn white and die.In Palau, the bleaching event killedoff a third of its corals on average, butthe proportion was much larger in theouter reefs whose dense fish popula-tions and dramatic drop-offs are themain attractions to divers.

At the time, Noah Idechong, thecountry's leading environmentalistand founder of the Palau Conserva-tion Society, had recently been elect-ed to the lower house of Parliament.

"We realized that our no-fishingareas could not protect us from glob-al warming and reef bleaching," hesaid.

Mr. Idechong introduced legisla-tion to integrate the patchwork ofexisting protected areas and add an-other 30 percent from those that bestresisted bleaching, or recovered fast-est from it, he said.

Today, the network design is closeto being completed, and by the end ofthe decade it should be fully in place,Mr. Idechong said.

To monitor the health of the reefsand curb poaching, Palau needs $2.1million a year, officials say. Foreigndonors are expected to create a $12million trust fund, and the rest willcome from an added tax on divers,said Mr. Raynor.

Because Palau is far ahead of theothers, "It's really important we suc-ceed, because the whole world is look-ing at us," Mr. Raynor added.

Palau and other reef-fishing communities are discovering that no-fishing areas lead to resurgent fish populations.

Photographs by Christopher Pala for The New York Times

Palau protects a 1,200-square-kilometer patchwork of reefs; it has called on its neighbors to conserve 30 percent of coastal waters by 2020.

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