PIRC personnel had a briefing with some members of the Senate on Monday for the appropriations of funding for the next fiscal year.
PICRC’s Head Researcher Steven Victor presented reports and data analysis to the Senators. The research shows the impact of housing development to the coral reproduction.The research shows that stressed corals produced less egg and there’s a lower chance of fertilization.The research recommended that Palau leaders should agree on some development guidelines. To set some limits if development must occur to protect the corals in Palau.PICRC Chief Executive Officer Fabian B. Iyar said they had a briefing with the members of the House of Delegates in May to make them aware of what they are doing and how important it is for Palau.Iyar said it’s the Senators turn now to see and understand things how they work to protect the environment of Palau.“We want them to see the value of our works so that they can make appropriations for the next fiscal year. It is important that they provide us money to help us continue the work,” Iyar said.“We did presentations and we explained to them what we do and how we spend the money and where it goes,” he said.Iyar said since 2001 the budget appropriations from OEK went down from $500,000 to $450,000 and for the last two years, it went down to $425,000.Now there is a proposal to cut ten percent of the budget.“We want them to understand why there’s a need for us to get more funding. The more money we get, the better because it would mean that we can do a lot of works and we can implement a lot of programs for the Marine Protected Areas and for our water resources,” Iyar said.Iyar said among the programs that needs to be prioritized is the water resources and the Marine Protected Areas.“We’re doing a lot of research not only about Marine but also water and we’re doing water research from land to set control for development. We concentrate on water shed projects so we do the data and present it to them. We work with each State to help them maintain their conservation areas but they are the one who makes decisions what areas to be closed for Marine Protected Areas. We just do the work and share it to them then we make recommendations then they make decisions based on the data that we shared,” Iyar said.
