By Nazario Rodriguez Jr.
Horizon news staff

Governor Yositaka Adachi is worried that Koror State Government (KSG) might lose $1.3 million in annual revenues if the financial provision of a new bill amending the Protected Areas Network (PAN) Act is not clearly fixed.
Adachi said that the bill, which proposes $50 conservation fee to be collected from every tourist that visits the country to be used for the operation of PAN, would supersede all state laws pertaining to the collection of fees from tourists.
KSG is currently charging tourists for Rock Island use fee amounting to $35 per person, which would be affected if HB 7-156-9, HD2 becomes a law.
The bill had been passed on third reading last Wednesday May 2 at the House of Delegates and is now in the Senate.
Adachi said that the $1.3 million income from that fee is to maintain the Rock Islands and for environmental activities only.
Three other states are also heavily affected by it like the $5 Waterfalls fee in Ngardmau and the visitors’ fee for Peleliu and Kayangel.
"The Governors are mainly concerned about the financial aspect because it will directly affect the operation of the States. We are proposing that an addendum to the bill making it clear that the Rock Islands fee will not be affected in any way," Adachi said following the regular meeting of the Governors Association last Tuesday morning at the Koror State Assembly Hall.
Adachi said that at present they are just depending on the Rock Islands fee for their operation because they have not received yet their State Block Grants that include a third of 2005, the whole of 2006 and nothing yet for 2007.
Accordingly, 10 percent of the $50 conservation tourist arrival fee will go to the PAN administrative aspect and 90 percent will be put into a separate account.
An estimated $4 million in guaranteed revenues annually for the national government if based on the 80,000 visitors a year.
KSG’s Conservation and Law Enforcement Office Director Adalbert Eledui also expressed his strong opposition to the proposed bill saying that the best practice to collect fees on for environmental management is to make it locally.
Eledui, who has attended the Donors meeting of Programme Work on Protected Areas in June 2005 in Italy, said that in fact this practice has been a result of a global survey conducted by the Coral Reef Alliance.
He also made presentation on the sustainable financing for Rock Islands in October 2006 in Mexico.
"Koror is unique in the world because of the Rock Islands," he said.
Eledui said that such fees should not be into the national treasury because the priority will lose its own purpose.
"You cannot get the money in time to implement the projects," he said.