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Leaders Ask For International Assistance On Marine Resources

By David Miho in Koror
Tuesday: May 06, 2008

Elected and traditional leaders of Palau’s Ngarchelong State’s have called upon world experts on coastal marine resource management to help them design a program to manage their resources at a leadership summit, which began today.

Tom Graham of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Service and Dr. Andrew Smith of the Nature Conservancy arrived in Palau over the weekend. They met with leading Palauan conservationists Delegate Noah Idechong, education and traditional leader Kathy Kesolei and Eric Verheij, acting director of the Palau office of the Nature Conservancy to plan the details of the Ngarchelong leader’s summit, which runs through May 8.

Graham and Smith have been tasked with observing the various presentations, views, data and recommendations of resource speakers at the summit. Then they are to make their own recommendations that the leadership might consider in “layman’s terms” that can be applied by the Ngarchelong leadership.

The leadership is particularly interested in protecting and managing marine resources in Palau’s northern reefs. They are a ring of coral reefs north of Palau’s Babeldaob Island with remarkably pristine marine life. It is an area that is ideal for marine environmental studies as well as fertile fishing grounds.