“Through this signing, the national government formally recognizes the project,” said Joe Aitaro, PAN National Coordinator. “It officially recognizes Helen Reef as one of its partners.”
Aitaro said Helen Reef is a project that started about 10 years ago.
It is the country’s largest community-designated conservation site and one of the Pacific’s most outstanding atoll complexes in terms of marine biodiversity.
“Helen Reef has one of the most high density populations of sea turtles,” said Aitaro. “It was one of the first community conservation sites to manage not just the sea turtles but the environment in which they live.”
Helen Reef is located in the south west islands, and it takes a day on boat to get there. “It is the biggest and the farthest PAN site in Palau,” said Aitaro “And being the farthest it needs a little bit more resources compared to other States that are close to Babeldaob.”
As an official PAN site, Helen Reef is now ensured that it will have access to technical assistance and sustainable financing from the government.
“The ceremony is the accumulation of years of work,” shared Aitaro.
“Having Helen Reef as PAN site is good for Palau; now the work increases. Now we have to start providing our support to Helen Reef,” said Aitaro.
Helen Reef has been recruiting funding and support from international foundations. But now, PAN will look for grants to help fund their activities.
“The national government will not only help the project with the funding but with technical assistance as well. We have to look at it in terms of monitoring,” said Aitaro. “The key word is effective conservation. We are going to make sure that all their activities are effective. We need to effectively conserve our resources with support from the national government.”
Helen Reef is the fifth PAN site in Palau and they’re still lookingfor three more, said Aitaro.
