JICA representative Makoto Noda and Dr. Patrick U. Tellei, Chairman of the Board of Directors for Palau International Coral Reef Center signed the MOU on Wednesday morning while Minister Harry Fritz of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Environment and Tourism acted as witness.
The protocol monitoring project is worth $2 million and will be funded by JICA.
Tellei in an interview after the MOU signing said that the project would not only gain trained personnel for Palau and the region but also would foster the work in protecting the environment.
“We’re happy for the signing of the records of the Joint Coordination Committee, it’s a group that review the agenda of the project and after a year we will meet again to review what we have accomplish,” Tellei said.
JICA for their part said that now that the MOU has been signed, they can now proceed with all the preparations before the project finally starts in April 2010.
Seiji Nakaya, an expert and Chief Advisor for JICA said that they will review the current situation in conservation and management of MPA and monitoring activities for coral reef ecosystems conducted by PICRC.
He added they will also select target Marine Protected Areas for monitoring in consultation with local communities and administrative agencies related to MPAs.
“We are very happy for the signing of the very important meeting and we are now ready to start our project to help the conservation of coral reefs in Palau,” Nakaya said.
Nakaya explained that protocol monitoring means installing new methods for monitoring and collection of data and dissemination which can be used in future management of MPA.
The goal of the project is to strengthen the capacities of monitoring system for MPA management.
The time frame of the project is three years.
