Palau finalises deals to protect its EEZ

Transcript

The president of Palau, Tommy Remengesau, says his government is finalising deals for drones, radar and patrol boats to help enforce a ban on commercial fishing in its waters.

Palau plans to extend its marine sanctuary to cover all of its 600,900 square km square kilometre exclusive economic zone.

Mr Remengesau says the country must first ensure it can recoup the expected five million US dollars in losses from fishing fees and licenses through tourism and also have enforcement in place to protect the zone.

Mr Remengesau says Palau hopes to have the moratorium in action this year.

TOMMY REMENGESAU: This is being done in relation to our very strong and still practice, cultural and traditional practice, which is a bul. We call it a bul. And what a bul is, is a moratorium that we have in place on fishing activities in certain parts of the reef every time the community through the chiefs would notice that the stocks are dwindling, or the sizes of the fish are getting small. So throughout our history and our generations, the bul has always been an effective conservation and sustainable practice for our people done at the community and grassroot level by our traditional chiefs. We have also noticed that as a small island nation our food security is at stake also.

We need fish to feed our people as well as feed the growing tourist population - thousands that come here every year. The issue of fairness is very big to us also. While it may be a billion dollar industry we are really getting peanuts and breadcrumbs. Maybe if we concentrated our efforts on ecotourism, sports fishing, catch and release, international sports tournaments, this could also be a sustainable flow of revenues for our people as well as to our government. Palau is already a UNESCO World Heritage site. So we are very proud of that and we also have proclaimed our 200 exclusive economic zone as a shark sanctuary, so already we have a protected area network in place.

SALLY ROUND: Nevertheless, this is a very bold step, this next step you're taking to ban all commercial fishing. How are you going to police the area?

TR: We are working with potential partners, especially people with the right technology, whether it's drone, surveillance or additional patrol boats, radar equipment, we are working with governments, United States, and Japan, NGOs, foundations. There has been legal analysis, economic analysis, are showing us just where we need to go and what issues we have to address. So this is not just something that we're blindly getting into but we want to make sure that we're addressing all the basis before we make that final proclamation very soon.

SR: What has been the reaction from international fishing companies that will be banned from using your waters?

TR: Well, I can understand maybe their concern, but don't forget, Sally, we are doing this in line with also the goals of our regional organisations like Pacific Nauru Agreement partnerships. The regional goal is also for conservation as well as sustainable fishing practices.