On Friday, officials of Ngardmau government met at Palau International Coral Reef Center for a community outreach program to raise awareness on the importance of having management and monitoring plans for MPA.
Ngardmau Governor Akiko Sugiyama, Speaker Ananias Ngiraiwet, Vice Speaker Willard Kumangai, Delegate Rebluud Kesolei, Chairman for Ngardmau Public Land Authority Andres Thing and five other delegates attended the meeting.
“If you designate an MPA you need to have a management plan. Without that you can’t have your monitoring plan,” Carol Emaurois, Head of Environmental Education at PICRC, said in an interview. “A monitoring plan is necessary to look at the fish, corals, clams, to give you a picture of how they are doing. It tells you the health of the MPA,” she added.
From there, she said, you can see which part needs more attention.
“Right now, Ngardmau is in the process of completing their management plan; and they are now working on their monitoring plan,” Emaurois said.
The support of the community is necessary for the project to succeed. That’s why the leaders need to be aware of its importance to be able to impart the information to the community.
“They’re the ones who change policies,” Emaurois said. “They can’t do this by themselves; they need the support of the community. And if the people in the community don’t support it, the project will not succeed,” she said.
Emaurois said it’s all about managing the people, managing the action of the community, and not the fish or the corals. It’s necessary for the future, to make sure that the resources are not depleted.
PICRC started conducting monitoring trainings for conservation officers of five States, namely, Ngarchelong, Ngardmau, Ngiwal, Ngchesar and Peleliu, on May 24 to 27 and June 7 to 10. PICRC has chosen the five States as pilot MPAs for its Capacity Enhancement Project for Coral Reef Monitoring (CEPCRM).
CEPCRM is a $2 million worth joint project of Japan International Cooperation Agency and PICRC to develop a coral monitoring system to support management of the country’s MPAs, including Micronesian Challenge jurisdictions countries, namely, Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of Marshall Islands, Guam and Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
According to Emaurois, the conservation officers in Ngardmau — Ngirachewes Aderkeroi and Alson Ngiraiwet – are very well trained in monitoring. She said soon Ngardmau will be able to do the monitoring by themselves.
