Subsistence and commercial fishing, expanding tourism and coastal development are among the stressors facing ecosystems in .

A miracle in a LITTLE ISLANDS, conference room Kolonia, Federated States of Micronesia — Conservationist BIG STRIDES Bernd Cordes experienced plenty of physical splendor during a ten-day Inspired individuals and Western donors trip to Micronesia in 2017, his first visit to the region in six years. Irides- built a modern conservation movement in cent fish darted out from tropical corals. Wondrous green islands rose Micronesia. But the future of reefs there is from the light blue sea. Manta rays as tenuous as ever. zoomed through the waves off a beach covered in wild coconut trees.

But it was inside an overheated By Eli Kintisch conference room on the island of that Cordes witnessed

Palau/FSM Profile 1 perhaps the most impressive sight on his trip. There, on the nondescript premises of the Micronesia Con- servation Trust, or MCT, staff from a dozen or so environmental groups operating across the region attended a three-day session led by officials at MCT, which provides $1.5 million each year to these and other groups. Cordes wasn’t interested, per se, in the contents of the discussions.

After all, these were the kind of optimistic PowerPoint talks, mixed with sessions on financial reporting and compliance, that you might find at a meeting between a donor and its grantees anywhere in the world.

Yet in that banality, for Cordes, lay the triumph. MCT funds projects Most households in the Federated States of Micronesia rely on subsistence fishing. ranging from a shark sanctuary that covers 2.5 million square miles to a and this writer—it was on behalf Our trip focused on two countries network of marine protected areas, of the David and Lucile Packard in Micronesia where the Foundation or MPAs. The meeting itself was tan- Foundation. Since 1998, the Foun- has supported the most work: gible evidence of a steadily maturing dation has spent more than $100 and the Federated States of conservation movement in a region million in eight countries—Indonesia, Micronesia, or FSM. The occasion where none really existed in 2000. the Philippines, Malaysia, the of the journey was bittersweet for “It was moving,” Cordes says. “You Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, local conservationists. The Packard had a local donor talking to orga- Solomon Islands, Fiji, and Papua Foundation is now ending its work in nizations from Palau all the way to New Guinea (PNG). That’s one of the the Western Pacific and refocusingits . That didn’t happen largest and most consistent sources marine conservation efforts on the eight years ago, let alone twenty of marine conservation funding in six nations with the biggest impact years ago.” From a few individuals, the region. Micronesia’s conserva- on global ocean resources. Yet there the movement has grown to en- tion movement offers lessons for was progress to celebrate in both compass local groups, advocates, protecting wild places far beyond its FSM and Palau, which in separate government officials, and a regional, sandy shores. ways have each played a leadership reliable funding source. Conserva- role for conservation in Micronesia. tion, says Willy Kostka, MCT’s But conservationists there are For its part, Palau has made environ- executive director, “has become a certainly facing big challenges of mental stewardship a selling point sustainable movement in Micronesia their own. Overfishing, pollution, and for tourism, highlighting the aquatic and there’s no stopping.” coastal development have already life off its shores and in its won- harmed their reefs, and each stressor drous Jellyfish Lake. The country has A handful of small countries in a is intensifying. Climate change, designated MPAs over a third of its remote corner of the Pacific Ocean meanwhile, is steadily warming coastal area and established ground- came to embrace modern conserva- and acidifying the waters that are breaking fishing regulations on a key tion, adapt it to their own traditions, so central to Micronesian societies. set of reefs. FSM, meanwhile, has and make it their own. That’s surely Damage to the ecosystem is “going significantly expanded its own MPA the story of local leaders, like Kostka, slower than what you would see network and recently created new who were dedicated to the cause in other regions because of all the protections on offshore fishing in the long before their compatriots or [conservation] efforts,” says Kostka. expansive zone of ocean it controls. governments embraced it. But also But now that the movement has central to the progress in Microne- matured, it’s facing daunting chal- sia has been Western philanthropy, lenges. “In the next ten, fifteen years which fueled the change. When we really need to double, quadruple Cordes returned to the region in our efforts in order to change and to 2017—accompanied by colleagues stop this decline.”

APRIL 2019 2 Reviving a traditional accustomed to fishing wherever and In 1994, an ambitious Palauan whenever they wanted,” wrote the government official named Noah conservation ethic authors of Nature’s Fortune in 2013. Idechong persuaded chiefs in the newly independent country to Growing up in Pohnpei in the 1950s, So Paul took matters into his own proclaim a traditional bul, or closure, fisher Dakio Paul loved fishing off hands. He personally declared on spawning areas, and then led an island his family owned called Kehpara closed to fishing, and began the effort to pass Palau’s first envi- Kehpara, also known as Black Coral patrolling its waters himself with a ronmental law. It regulated certain Island. Teeming with turtles, seabirds, 15-horsepower engine, a bottle of fishing and banned export of some and other marine life, the island had bourbon, a flashlight, and a shotgun. of the country’s most threatened been shown in surveys to host as He fired on at least one occasion: species. His goal at the time, he says, many as 20,000 grouper, a key a warning shot when a fisher didn’t was to “reinvigorate the traditional tropical species, in annual giant heed his call to leave. But most did, conservation ethic.” Efforts by swarms of spawning fish on a nearby and the fishing respite allowed the Micronesians like Idechong helped reef. Historically, local chiefs banned reef to recover. “After nearly three put this small island nation on the fishing during such periods so as to years of constant vigilance, local global environmental map. protect the populations’ numbers. fishermen began to notice a differ- This was the traditional way to man- ence—fish population and sizes Among the international environ- age fishing, and to punish violators. increased not only in the protected mental groups paying attention to But around 1970, Paul left Pohnpei area but also in adjacent areas, a Micronesia during the 1990s was The and moved to Saipan. spill-over effect,” noted the Conser- Nature Conservancy, or TNC, which vation Society of Pohnpei. “Aston- was in the process of establishing FSM had changed rapidly while he ished fishermen [were] converted by branch offices in FSM and, later, was gone. Islands in the region saw their own observations.” In 1999, the Palau. By the late nineties, state and increases in population, large national authorities in Palau influxes of U.S. aid, shifts to had established ten mod- a cash economy, and more estly sized protected areas motorboats, fishing tools, Paul patrolled its waters with a bottle along Palau’s coastlines and new technologies. Fish- of bourbon, a flashlight, and a shotgun. and one large protected ing was becoming a more area in the Rock Islands. individual activity, and ties to He fired on at least one occasion. TNC worked with Idechong customs that protected reefs Pohnpei legislature declared Black to create the Palau Conservation weakened. “Motor engines on speed Coral Island and eight other marine Society (PCS). “Noah and the other boats allow a so-so fisherman to sites off-limits to fishing and founders had a vision,” says Charlene become a master fisherman,” says dispatched periodic patrols. Mersai, who worked with Idechong Umai Basilius with the Palau Con- early on at PCS. “It took TNC and servation Society. GPS and sonar Individuals like Dakio Paul, who Packard to make it happen.” fish finders have only enhanced the passed away in 2008, catalyzed the trend. In the 1980s, foreign fishing birth of modern conservation in In 1996, the Packard Foundation vessels, mostly from much larger Micronesia. FSM and Palau only made a modest grant to help start Asian countries, harvested Microne- gained independence in 1986 and PCS. That was the same year that sian reef fish, increasing the pressure 1994, respectively, and like many Hewlett-Packard co-founder on marine ecosystems. developing nations, it’s proven David Packard passed away. On difficult for them to protect natural his death, several billion dollars in In 1995, after two decades living resources that are in high demand stock was transferred to the Founda- abroad, Paul returned to Pohnpei from global fisheries and tourism tion, a transfer that coincided with a and was dismayed to find a very industries. The nascent Palauan skyrocketing boom in tech-related different Kehpara. Overfishing had government’s priorities “were really stock prices. Micronesia’s incredible decimated the grouper population, building infrastructure and capacity biological diversity, combined with and boats had damaged nearby for education [and] health,” says Ann nascent conservation efforts there, reefs. Complaining to the govern- Singeo, who heads a Palauan con- suggested fertile ground for invest- ment was no use—in his absence servation and development group ment to the Foundation’s board, the government itself had become called the Ebiil Society. During that which included several members part of the problem, having provided period, fish from the nation’s reefs with a passion for ocean conserva- boats and fishing equipment to were being promoted as a lucrative tion. So in 1998, with its enlarged citizens to promote the industry. His export to Asia. endowment, the Foundation de- neighbors and family “had become cided to invest more heavily in the

Palau/FSM Profile 3 Western Pacific, a region that had inform conservation. Cordes recalls, national Coral Reef Center (PICRC), thus far received little attention from to his surprise, the researchers’ a research institute and aquarium, Western philanthropists. The initial response: “Don’t invest much in revealed that more than $180,000 goal was to spend $5 million per year science right now.” The state of had been used inappropriately. in seven Western Pacific countries, scientific knowledge regarding Cordes and Foundation colleague from Indonesia in the west to FSM marine habitats in the Pacific was Pam Seeto agonized over whether in the east. No end date was set for pretty low, they said. “But we know to cut ties with PICRC. In the end, that investment. “We were trying enough to know that things are get- they decided to help PICRC conduct to help the movement get off the ting worse,” he recalls them saying. an internal overhaul, which included ground,” says Cordes. “And it’s better for you to put the ma- new staff and procedures, and the jority of the money into action now.” organization gradually righted the The Foundation had initially ship. “I was really impressed when assumed that major, Western sci- So the Foundation did. Cordes still we were down, that they were able ence-driven groups—primarily TNC funded scientific efforts to support to come in and help us,” says current and the World Wildlife Fund—would conservation in the region, but it PICRC CEO Yim Golbuu, who at the be natural grant recipients for the was a lower priority than activities time was a researcher at PICRC. work. But in a job interview in 1999 that directly protected habitats, before he was hired to manage promoted conservation through While the Foundation supported the newly created Western Pacific media, and trained conservation the development of organizations, program, Cordes was asked by the professionals. Between 1998 and it also provided funding to strengthen Foundation’s conservation director 2017, the Foundation gave roughly the field skills of conservation how he would spend the program’s $16 million to more than twenty practitioners, many of whom were $5 million budget that year. “You organizations in Palau and FSM. just beginning their careers. The know what,” Cordes recalls saying, Western Pacific program devoted “I probably won’t spend it all. roughly $2.7 million to strengthen It’s too much money right individual skills and know-how away.” The conventional method of protecting in Palau and FSM between 1998 and 2016, including leadership Cordes, like others in the marine areas was not going to work training and nonprofit man- community, felt that grass- in Micronesia. agement. Seeto, an easygoing roots groups—even if they marine scientist who served as were untested—were critical the Foundation’s regional advisor, to starting a conservation move- contributed heavily to the Founda- ment. So he sought a balance in tion’s skills-building investments supporting new local organizations The seeds of a and spent “enormous amounts of and established international ones. movement time” with grantees, she recalls, He feared that granting large sums reviewing reports and proposals, in countries that had yet to develop The relatively plentiful funding, providing strategic advice, and viable local conservation groups combined with the small size of the offering technical guidance. could put too much emphasis on conservation community, allowed the funders’ agendas. the Packard Foundation to apply It’s unusual for an American founda- what Cordes called a “fail-safe” tion to have full-time staff working In developing its program in the approach with local grantees. “We so far from the , but region, the Foundation targeted were comfortable with some trial Micronesian partners were mostly what scientists had recently dubbed and error as long as, over time, it was thankful for the help. “Packard “the bulls eye”—the region spanning clear that the cumulative effect was doesn’t come in and say we want parts of Southeast Asia and Melane- building momentum,” he later wrote. to do this,” says Idechong of his sia with the highest level of marine Packard “allowed us to develop our longtime funding partner. “I know biodiversity on the planet. Some own ideas,” says Kostka, who ran the what help I need. So that has been conservationists felt the Foundation Conservation Society of Pohnpei sort of the relationship with me and should prioritize research to identify from 1998 to 2006. “To implement Packard.” The training, too, won sites of high biodiversity and to the programs, make mistakes, grow plaudits. “No matter what experience guide their protection. But at a meet- from those mistakes.” I had in the past, as coordinator, ing in Bali in 2000, Foundation staff as an anthropologist, as a marine hosted an informal discussion with Deciding whether to stick with researcher—I needed that adminis- ocean scientists to ask what kind of troubled grantees could be challeng- tration experience,” says Mersai, who marine science they should fund to ing. A 2008 audit of the Palau Inter- began her career in conservation in

APRIL 2019 4 1998 at the Palau Conservation Soci- ety. Now a seasoned pro, she serves as Palau’s national conservation coordinator in the finance ministry.

Grantees were mostly eager for the capacity-building, but there wasn’t always funding available for sus- tained, multi-year training for each individual or organization. A more efficient approach was needed. In 2000, a TNC staff member named Audrey Newman spent a year-long sabbatical with a program at the Foundation called Organizational Effectiveness. She helped develop what would become, with support from both organizations, the Micronesians in Island Conservation network. The network brought together conservation professionals from across the region for regular retreats, trainings, and shared projects. By 2010, the network had linked 34 local organizations and government agencies in the region and helped its members launch regulated by enforcement agencies Cordes had seen the pros and cons several initiatives, including the on the water. of this approach to MPAs in the Chuuk Conservation Society in FSM Philippines, Malaysia, and western From the beginning of the Founda- in 2005. “Those friendships, those Indonesia. In those countries, tion’s involvement in Micronesia, relationships continue to help us national governments had the legal TNC was a close partner. The in our respective work,” says authority to declare “no-take” parks nonprofit was a natural collaborator, Mersai, who recently connected over large swaths of land and near- with offices, existing conservation an FSM-based official with Palauan shore territory, with mixed results. programs, and local partner organi- colleagues for meetings related to But he doubted that centralized, zations. Over the two decades that climate change adaptation. government-led MPA declarations the Foundation supported marine were feasible in countries with conservation in the region, TNC decentralized and traditional gover- received more than a dozen grants nance systems. “That conventional Palau protects for work in Micronesia. But the approach to MPAs was not going to partnership required TNC to undergo work very well in Solomon Islands, its shores an ideological shift. Like other PNG, Fiji, Palau, and Micronesia,” Western conservation organizations, Despite its diminutive size—its total Cordes recalls thinking. So he aimed the group used science to guide to fund both large, science-driven land area is smaller than the city of conservation and protected area Albuquerque, N.M.—Palau maintains no-take reserves and smaller, com- decisions, and relied on govern- munity-identified multi-use areas. one of the most extensive systems ments to enforce those decisions, of MPAs in the world, comprising usually over large areas of territory As they found ways to protect roughly 40% of its nearshore ma- in the United States and Europe. coastal habitats like reefs and rine territory. That network formed “It was the Western kind of top- mangroves, the Foundation, TNC, relatively quickly in the early 2000s. down, national-parks-lock-it-up and other partners integrated In previous decades, FSM and philosophy,” says Newman, who left customary claims to resources and, Palau had established a handful of TNC in 2010 after working there for equally important, the local use of defined protected areas, but most 25 years. them. “In the Pacific Islands, man- were generally regarded as “paper agement occurs at the micro-level,” parks”—delineated on maps but not says Mersai. The term for multi-use consistently respected by fishers or MPAs that the Foundation embraced

Palau/FSM Profile 5 was Locally Managed Marine Area, The law also created a “Green Fee” That amounts to 41 percent of Pa- or LMMA. This approach recognizes of $15 per visiting tourist, dedicating lau’s nearshore marine area, though how people use and manage the money solely to funding those PICRC’s Yim Golbuu says that if one their coastal resources, especially PAN sites and state departments of only counts areas completely closed fisheries, rather than trying to lock conservation. to fishing, the total is just 14 percent. them up. It recognizes that allow- ing such direct use was at least as Momentum in the conservation important as biodiversity values in community was growing, and motivating change. Palau’s conservation-minded president, Tommy Remengesau Jr., TNC’s staff in Micronesia chose to had a vision beyond his borders. In “rethink and adjust its role,” says 2006, he led a coalition of states Newman. For one thing, the new in the region to agree to what they strategy put the nonprofit in the dubbed the “Micronesia Challenge.” position of “coaching and enabling” Each state pledged to “effectively local partners, she says, instead of conserve” at least 30 percent of conducting conservation activities nearshore marine environments and itself. In this case, the initial local 20 percent of their total land area by partners were the Palau Conserva- 2020. “Time for each Pacific leader tion Society, a nonprofit based in to make conservation a priority,” , and the Conservation Society Remengesau told his fellow leaders. of Pohnpei, based in Kolonia.1 FSM, the Marshall Islands, , and the Commonwealth of the For its part, the Packard Foundation Northern Marianas all signed on. made it clear to the conservation communities in Palau and FSM that it By 2007, wrote Cordes, “the mo- wasn’t advocating for organizations mentum had been built and the and local municipalities to eschew marine conservation movement was scientific input in selecting areas to making headlines.” The Foundation Marine protected areas require effective management to succeed, says Umai Basilius. protect. But Packard was prioritizing and its partners had originally hoped, protection of places that had local in 2000, to establish 25 to 35 well- Each protected area has its own significance to existing communities managed MPAs across the Western rules and objectives, as agreed and their fishers. At first, says Umaii Pacific. But by 2007, in Palau, FSM, upon by local communities. For Basilius of the Palau Conservation and the rest of the region there were example, the main goals of the Helen Society, a majority of Palau’s MPAs more than 300 new, mostly small, Reef protected area in were set up by the individual states MPAs—a number well “beyond state, a low-lying atoll in Palau’s far using a multi-use, LMMA-like ap- anyone’s expectations,” he wrote. southwest, are preparing for rising proach, but what little national seas and protecting against foreign The following year, Palau created the government funding was available poachers, some of whom have used PAN Fund, which set up the rules for to the states went for road and cyanide and dynamite to harvest fish. office maintenance, not enforce- using the Green Fee money to fund ment of conservation rules. the PAN sites. By 2017, the fee was In the central state of , raising $2 million per year, the by contrast, conservation zones TNC worked with several partners maximum allowed under the rules, protect against overuse by tourists, including Noah Idechong, who by with most going back to states who visit the reefs and an inland then had become a lawmaker in within Palau for conservation waterfall. The PAN Fund underpins the Palau’s National Congress, to projects. Essential to the PAN’s entire system, says Umiich Sengebau,2 strengthen and finance the success, says Umai Basilius, is that Palau’s minister for Natural Resources, protected area system through the legislation required protected Environment and Tourism, since legislation. In 2003 Palau’s law- areas to submit management plans it will provide “sustainable finance makers passed the Protected Area and be accountable for the funds even after major donors like Packard Network Act, or PAN Act, enabling they received. Palau now boasts [leave.]” states to create new or to strengthen 34 sites in 15 of its 16 states, existing protected areas as part of a comprising some 645 square miles. network recognized by the national 1 TNC chose Bill Raynor, a Californian who made Pohnpei his home 35 years ago, to head the government and informed by both TNC-Micronesia program. Subsequently Raynor had a hand in most of the programs the science and traditional knowledge. Packard Foundation funded in the region. Raynor passed away in 2015, but his conservation legacy is evident everywhere in Micronesia. 2 Sengebau is former deputy director of TNC’s Micronesia program. APRIL 2019 6 Palau’s more than 100,000 annual tourists may represent a crucial source of conservation funding, but they also pose a genuine environ- mental threat.3 New hotels mean more pollution and dredging to expand coastlines, and higher de- mand for fish to feed the hotels’ customers. “Asian tourists,” for exam- ple, “like to go in big groups. When they go onto the reef they like to catch reef fish for themselves to eat,” says Yvonne Sadovy, a marine biolo- gist at the University of Hong Kong. Marine biologist Pat Colin of the Coral Reef Research Foundation in Koror says that, when compared to more densely populated Asian coun- is the northernmost state in Palau and consists of three small atolls. tries like the Philippines or Indonesia, ocean dotted with sandy atolls. The Soon after, TNC, with Foundation Palau’s reefs experience “reduced channels between them teem with support, invited Australian fish pressure or exploitation.” But he fears fish. But the fish are smaller than they scientist Jeremy Prince to the island. that could change. “There are were forty years ago, and there are In 2012, Prince spent a week with Palauans who want a million tourists far fewer of them. men from Ngarchelong and Kayangel a year here and those million tour- fishing all around the archipelago. By ists, if they come, they’re going to In the 1980s, commercial fishingin - examining the gonads of the fish they want to eat a fish.” In addition, a creased in Palau, driven by outsiders. collected, they understood why the proposed road outside Koror could Asian boats, in particular, came fishery was declining: 60 percent of have tremendous impacts on coastal looking for reef fish, and the popu- the fish had been caught before they development. lations of big, colorful species like were mature enough to reproduce. grouper, parrotfish, and emperors “We are eating tomorrow’s fish,” MPAs don’t directly challenge the plummeted. That spurred Idechong, wrote Steven Victor, who now heads tourism industry. Unlike strict limits before he joined Palau’s legislature, the TNC Micronesia program. “Like on hotel and road development, to promote national legislation to farmers who eat their own seeds, MPAs can be used to promote tour- limit outside fishing. At the same we are eating away our future.” ism by protecting the marine habitats time, he encouraged the chiefs of tourists come to see via snorkeling Ngarchelong and Kayangel to call a Five years later, I’m in a fishing boat and diving, while MPA rules can bul on sport fishing. By 2000, both hurtling north along Palau’s west simultaneously limit the impact on states had set up conservation areas coast to see what the fishers created these areas. In 2004, the Foundation to protect their reefs, including a in response: one of the most sophisti- supported a well-funded initiative to temporary closure of Ebiil channel, cated fisheries management systems measure and mitigate the impacts a crucial spawning area for fish on in Micronesia. Green cliffs, palm trees, of a major new road on Palau’s main Ngarchelong. Three years later, after and flying fish are among the scenery island. But other than efforts related advocacy by the newly created Ebiil on the hour-long boat ride, which to that road and the MPAs, wrote Society, Ngarchelong permanently takes us from Koror to low-slung Cordes, the Foundation and its closed the channel. Ngarchelong state to pick up some partners “didn’t focus enough during fishers, and then on to even more the 2000s on the growth of the Unfortunately, overfishing continued low-slung Kayangel. As the fisher- tourism industry, and on hard mea- in the vicinity that wasn’t closed off. men and community leaders chat, sures to set some sensible limits on it.” In 2008, representatives from the their mouths are red with the juice of northern reefs approached Idechong. chewed betel nut, a mild stimulant Past work with PCS and surveys that’s ubiquitous across the region. conducted with the Ebiil Society Rules for fish hunters confirmed what the fishers had seen on their boats: an ailing ecosystem. Palau’s northernmost states, the “We have created protected areas,” 3 For its part, FSM receives far fewer tourists, so it sparsely populated Ngarchelong and can’t look to establish a lucrative Green Fee to they told Idechong, “but the fishery fund its MPA network. At the same time, it doesn’t Kayangel, include wide swaths of is still declining.” have to be as concerned about increased con- sumption tied to tourism.

Palau/FSM Profile 7 Kayangel is a remote island far from Harper Skang, a Ngarchelong fisher and Pam Seeto left in 2012. Claussen the capital of a country that is itself and tribal elder, was struck when he had previously worked in Palau to a distant destination. We walk along first met Prince. “Hurry back,” he told help with conservation financing and a dock into a small green building: the Australian, “before the fish are all organizational management efforts, the conservation rangers’ office and gone.” But now he’s optimistic about including efforts, including assisting one of the few dozen structures on the ecosystem’s trajectory. After one PICRC to overhaul its strategy and the tiny island. There, some in black of Ngarchelong’s key fish spawning operations in 2008. His goal at the t-shirts labeled “Kayangel State sites was protected for two years, time was to ensure alignment among Conservation Officer,” the rangers he says, “the fish became very big different groups’ capacity and their explain the rules the state finalized and [there are] lots of them.” Data on projects. “Too many groups were in 2012, the first-ever such fishing fish recently surveyed by PICRC at being generalists,” says Green, who regulations in Palau. The system 190 sites in the area suggest some has served as regional advisor to established a fish permitting system populations may be rebounding, the Foundation since 2012. That and set a three-year fishing moratori- says Prince, who’s returning soon to engendered some competition and um on five types of fish, giant clams, Palau to gather more data. some redundancies. and crustaceans. Twelve other types of fish can be harvested, but only if they meet minimum size requirements that rangers confirm when they inspect coolers in fishing boats. The fishers, working with TNC scientists, set those minimum sizes so as to ensure that most fish caught have already reproduced at least once.

When he was growing up on the island in the 1990s, recalls ranger Blodak Inawo-Quichocho, two police officers served to keep the peace, not to protect the reefs. But now the PAN Fund provides roughly $130,000 annually to support the Conservationists Noah Idechong and Steven Victor meet with local authorities, community leaders, and conservation rangers’ salaries, fishers to discuss the cooperative. equipment, and fuel. “Thank God for the PAN, as we’re able to monitor But on this project the community our own waters,” says Quichocho. has served some complementary Palauans and tourists are the main The cutting edge roles. PICRC provides science, the visitors the rangers encounter, Palau Conservation Society works but in recent years the team has of conservation in with the states and agencies, TNC tussled with poachers from Vietnam Micronesia serves as a project manager, and two and . state agencies contribute training The Northern Reefs project is a and support. Foundation staff hope After visiting with the rangers, complex and sometimes difficult the Northern Reefs project can set we sit with fishers to discuss the affair, involving national and state a national example of inter-state cooperative they created linking agencies in Palau, a research center, cooperation, since despite the fishers in Kayangel with those on and three nonprofit groups. But that’s country’s small size, states, and non- Ngarchelong. One fisher, Billy just the kind of cooperation needed profit groups too often fail to work Kemesong, says he didn’t think that to link traditional conservation together on conservation efforts. fish size mattered until he saw the practices, like the bul, with science- scientific data. Now he “believes in based fisheries management tech- The project also highlights TNC’s the project,” he says, and has joined niques. The work reflects an approach international connections. In the a new cooperative TNC helped that John Claussen, the current case of the Northern Reefs, those create that hopes to improve Foundation program manager, and ties allowed it to link the fishers with economic opportunities for fishers Stuart Green promoted after they Prince, whose method of promot- in both states. took over the Foundation’s Western ing healthy fish populations include Pacific program when Bernd Cordes the important step of regulating the

APRIL 2019 8 size of fish that fishers are allowed to First, it underscores how important “You’re not a good fisherman if you’re catch. (It’s an approach long used to effectively enforced protected areas selling things that can’t run away from regulate industrial and recreational are. Second, it means that regulating you. That culture has to change back fisheries that has only recently been fishing outside an MPA’s boundaries to what it was before in order to help tried in small island countries.) In is essential. Unfettered fishing just us manage our fisheries better,” partnership with Prince, the com- outside a protected area will deci- says Kostka. munity has set limits so that fishers mate populations of fish that migrate only keep fish whose size indicates in and out unless there are some Demand is far outstripping supply, that they have probably reproduced sensible rules to make the fishing of with tragic results. On average, sufficiently to replace themselves. spillover sustainable. citizens of the state of Pohnpei in FSM eat more than 205 pounds of The fish-measuring approach, used fish annually, among the highest in other parts of Palau, also showed amount in Micronesia.4 To provide promise in Kayangel. So TNC has that catch, fishers now prefer to since shared it with fisheries managers Micronesian fish hunt at night, underwater, using a across the world, including in Kenya, are shrinking flashlight and a spear gun. Fishers Indonesia, and California, as an can harvest schools of sleeping fish, affordable way to assess and A friendly teenage girl with a gold taking dozens at a time. manage fisheries. Since it engages tooth helps shoppers at her store fishers directly, says Prince, it is select from the day’s catch in a Pohnpei’s fishers harvest roughly “worth its weight in gold as a plastic cooler by the curb, weighing 4,000 tons of fish from the island’s communication tool.” their choices in plastic grocery bags reefs each year. But those reefs only on this sweltering afternoon. The fish produce about 1,100 tons of fish On a more fundamental level, the on offer here in Kolonia’s seaside annually. As fishers have depleted promising early results from Kayan- market include coral trout (sawi in these resources since 1970, the gel and Ngarchelong illustrate an im- Pohnpeian) and parrotfish (mowm- average bumphead parrotfish, a portant truth emerging in Micronesia: wmei). None are longer than a foot common reef species, has shrunk in on their own, MPAs are insufficient and most have yet to reach size by 80 percent and decreased in for conservation and reviving fisher- reproductive age. abundance by 71 percent. Pohnpei ies. “In the past we overemphasized has a “thriving coral reef fishery that the MPAs without broader consider- is poorly documented, infrequently ation of resource use requirements,” On their own protected monitored, marginally managed, and says Claussen. “The challenge is is experiencing unsustainable levels of building these protected areas marine areas are insufficient fishing,” wrote fisheries scientist Kevin alongside clear resource manage- for conservation and Rhodes in a recent paper.5 ment approaches and enforceable regulations for these.” reviving fisheries. Fishers are well aware of the prob- lem, says Kostka. “They understand Prince says the data shows that “Ten, fifteen years ago Pohnpei that what they’re doing is not good effective enforcement of such fishermen would be embarrassed to for the ecosystem or, ultimately, for restricted areas can protect spe- bring some of the fish that you are them in the future. But they have cies within their borders, if the areas seeing now in the market,” says Willy to put food on the table,” he says. are large enough to protect entire Kostka. When he was a boy, his father Without tourism or other sustainable fish populations. Fishers, including owned a fish market in Kolonia, and sources of income, it’s been hard Harper Skang, have commented that he says today’s fish are “sort of class for Pohnpei and the other states of an MPA sometimes will provide “spill- C or D fish that nobody would buy in FSM—Chuuk, Kosrae, and Yap—to over” to maintain nearby fisheries the old days.” The fact that clams and stem the overfishing crisis. That that are under harvesting pressure. other crustaceans are also available despite the fact that roughly a fifth of But Prince says his experience and underscores a shift in Pohnpeian the country’s lush coastal zones are recent studies suggest that protected values. in MPAs, most of which were created areas “have been oversold for their and maintained with help from the use in managing fisheries outside Conservation Society of Pohnpei. their boundaries.” Fish, it turns out, “are more homebodies than we thought.” That has two implications for management. 4 Rhodes, Kevin et al. “Marine Ecological Footprint Indicates Unsustainability of the Pohnpei (Micronesia) Coral Reef Fishery.” Environmental Conservation 42, no. 2 (2015): 182–90. doi:10.1017/S037689291400023X. 5 Ibid.

Palau/FSM Profile 9 But these MPAs are not yet effectively Another factor is that while FSM has ongoing challenge for the conserva- protecting wildlife. A substantial an increasingly conservation-minded tion community across Micronesia. barrier to enforcing FSM’s protected and active civil society—represented, Lisa Andon, MCT’s deputy execu- areas is the country’s decentralized among others, by Conservation tive director, says that as groups in and disparate government agencies, Society of Pohnpei (CSP) and equiva- the region have matured, their staffs most of which are underfunded. lent organizations in FSM’s other have become “more sustainable,” Despite the prevalence of nighttime three states—not enough of that partly by developing their own skills fishing, for example, key wildlife conservation ethic and expertise has to train new employees. But the authorities that monitor MPAs filtered into the government. Might pressures to leave FSM are consid- generally don’t work after 5:00 p.m. more pressure from donors have erable. Under a longstanding legal or on weekends. Though local, driven FSM to accelerate political agreement, it’s easy for FSM’s rather than state, officials, are autho- support for conservation? Around citizens to work, go to school, or rized to report violations, only state 2009, CSP requested that the Pack- serve in the military in the United officials have the authority to issue ard Foundation support, in addition States. As a result, many young and fines, and legal consequences are to its MPA work, the hiring of a staff talented individuals who might have rare. Within FSM’s four states, member whose job it would be to ended up helping to build local considerable power is held at the focus on state conservation policy. conservation efforts have found hyper-local level; Pohnpei, for The Foundation agreed, but in the work stateside instead. example, has eleven municipalities. end, CSP was unable to find some- For the system to work as a unit, one suitable for the job. Soon after, each layer of jurisdiction and CSP’s executive director left and enforcement must coordinate, the idea was dropped. Now Cordes Trust in the future which rarely happens. wonders whether he should have Despite the conservation move- Fishers on Pohnpei and the ment’s struggles to gain other islands of FSM have momentum in FSM, the country seen losses in their fisheries Jurisdictions and agencies coordinate has still shone as a conservation but don’t yet feel a real crisis, hub for the region. That’s in says the Packard Founda- poorly, hampering enforcement part because of MCT, which is tion’s Stuart Green. In fishers’ of environmental rules. based in Kolonia. In 2002, TNC minds, he says, “things are worked with local conservation kind of ‘ok.’ It’s hard to motivate “provided more encouragement” leaders and Kostka, who ran CSP at people under those conditions to pursue the idea and become much the time, to create MCT. The goal to act.” A particularly severe coral more involved in policy reform. was to secure sustainable financing bleaching event in 1998 in Palau for conservation in the region and helped kick-start action in that Even as the movement has provide a local source of leadership country, but FSM hasn’t had a similar blossomed, hiring and retaining on the issue. The Packard Foundation watershed event. talented individuals has been an supported the idea and became an early partner in its development.

Initially, the focus was on creating a local fund that could distribute support from outside donors to organizations working in FSM’s four island-states. In 2004, with a $30,000 grant from the Packard Foundation and support from TNC, MCT began with two employees. “We had $30,000, and we weren’t even sure we were going to be able to pay [salaries],” says Andon, who was then, as now, the deputy ex- ecutive director. But the Foundation provided a bit more funding so MCT could start making grants and do its own fundraising. The organization’s

APRIL 2019 10 Meanwhile, the Challenge has And while President Remengesau influenced other funders—and other had initially been spurred to action by regions. Jason Cole of the Margaret a prior conservation pledge by Fiji’s A. Cargill Philanthropies (MACP) says government,9 he had good advice the Challenge was the “main reason” from a variety of local conservation- his philanthropy began funding ists, including Tiare Holm, who had work in Micronesia in 2011. And the recently become the head of the Challenge has inspired similar efforts Palau Conservation Society and among developing countries in other helped prepare a speech the President regions facing threats to their marine made to introduce the Challenge. habitats. Five countries formed the Western Indian Ocean Coastal Chal- As for MCT, the organization has lenge in 2007; six Southeast Asian matured in the last five years, receiving countries agreed in 2009 to protect accreditation by the United Nations’ habitats under the Coral Triangle climate Adaptation Fund in 2015 and Initiative;7 and nine countries signed the Green Climate Fund in 2017. It has on to the Challenge Initia- also bolstered its financial and grant- tive in 2013.8 “None of us knew this making procedures with new staff The Micronesia Conservation Trust, run by would take off like this and have the and software. Several years ago, MCT Willy Kostka, funds projects across the region. impact it’s had,” says Trina Leberer, also became a formal grant-making TNC’s Pacific division director. partner with the World Bank’s Global work soon encompassed all of Environment Facility. FSM and, subsequently, the rest of the region. After the Micronesia Challenge was announced in 2005, MCT was eventually chosen to manage it and to disburse funds for conservation areas “of biological significance.” With money it raises from other sources, MCT also supports activities that are not necessarily biodiversity driven, such as improved management of a fish- ery whose primary values are eco- nomic or as a source of local food.

Over the last decade, international organizations, nonprofits, and individual countries have donated a total of $18.5 million to the Fisheries in , FSM are imperiled by lax enforcement of regulations, say local officials. Micronesia Challenge’s endowment fund, and the money is influencing The existence and success of the MCT’s track record and its support conservation in the region in myriad Challenge owes much to the from Packard has earned the orga- ways. The first Challenge disburse- Packard Foundation’s investment nization respect from other donors. ment was made in January of this in the region since 1998. The MACP, for example, began funding year. It took the form of a payment Micronesians in Island Conservation MCT in 2011 when Kostka told of investment returns to Palau’s network, for example, “was critical the philanthropy that there were Protected Area Network Fund for laying the groundwork” in worthy projects that needed support. from their portion of the fund.6 regional capitals to turn the idea “They’re funding the best projects (The arrangement has created an into a reality, says Leberer. that come through,” says Cole. incentive for FSM and the Marshall

Islands to develop their own protect- 6 MCT, “Press Release: MCT Makes the First Funds Transfer from Palau’s MC Endowment Fund to the Palau ed areas networks, akin to the PAN.) PAN Fund,” http://www.ourmicronesia.org/images/Press_release_MC_Disbursement_to_Palau.pdf, accessed April 6, 2017. Under current rules, their individual 7 Coral Triangle Initiative, “History of CTI-CFF,” http://www.coraltriangleinitiative.org/about, accessed MPAs cannot receive Challenge April 6, 2017. support until they institutionalize 8 Caribbean Challenge Initiative, Home Page, http://caribbeanchallengeinitiative.org/, accessed April 6, 2017. a true network. 9 Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme, “Celebrating the Tenth Anniversary of the Micronesia Challenge,” http://www.sprep.org/biodiversity-ecosystems-management/celebrating-the-tenth- anniversary-of-the-micronesia-challenge, accessed April 6, 2017. Palau/FSM Profile 11 That clout extends to the political of the island where a tenth of the The tribe’s chief, Soukisoahnloang scene in Pohnpei, where the organi- municipality’s population, some 700 Nahnmwarki, smiles quietly in a zation is among the most influential individuals, are fishers.According to hammock during the ceremony, and nonprofit groups in FSM. Recently the municipality, many regularly signs a 24-page document along with MCT helped promote a success- violate the rules of MPAs inside and the other officials. The plan acknowl- ful effort by the FSM’s Congress to outside the municipality’s boundaries. edges that “harvesting pressure” and expand its no-commercial-fishing But today Kitti is taking a step toward “lax adherence to and enforcement zone from 12 to 24 miles from every protecting its resources by announc- of natural resource regulations” are island’s coastline. This expanded ing a new conservation initiative. to blame for the decline of Kitti’s range represents 10 percent of fisheries. For starters, the Kitti FSM’s entire exclusive economic We arrive at windswept Peniou government plans to add a natural zone, or EEZ. Now MCT and its Island, at the southern tip of Pohnpei, resources coordinator to its 27-per- partners are working with FSM’s and sit on plastic chairs under a son municipal staff. The plan also government to utilize for conserva- spacious if unruly assemblage of announces a new “Kitti Municipal tion a portion of the fees it collects tarps, sheet metal, and wood. The Government Locally Managed Marine from commercial fishers operating dull ringing of stone striking stone Area,” though no new rules are in the country’s 1.3 million square announces the ceremony’s begin- proposed yet. The document, which miles of ocean territory. Those ning: four men pound the root of is not a legal agreement, is essentially monies could then be used to fund the kava plant to make sakau, a a plan to make a plan so that resources conservation areas throughout FSM, traditional mud-colored drink that “should be protected, managed and like the Green Fee does with tourist confers mild narcotic effects. Kitti’s preserved” for future generations. fees in Palau. mayor, Luhken Moanlap, is the “Manage today for tomorrow,” the jocular emcee for the proceedings, mayor exhorts the group as the which are mostly in Pohnpeian, ceremony concludes. with occasional English explana- tions to the guests from the Packard As Micronesians accelerate their Paper parks are Foundation. As is customary, several conservation efforts, the threats not enough of the dignitaries who offer remarks to their reefs are growing. On one wear no shirt with their trousers. hand, reefs in Palau and FSM A day trip by boat around Pohnpei’s While the men mark the occasion appear to be less degraded, and verdant coastline provides a glimpse by taking turns drinking sakau out more resilient, than those in much of change coming to FSM, albeit of a coconut shell, women sit in the more densely populated countries slowly. We are headed to Kitti, a back on blankets, in the shade. like Indonesia or the Philippines. jurisdiction on the southwest portion

APRIL 2019 12 But ocean acidification and warming After a small transition grant, Green water temperatures affect every told him, the Foundation would be reef, regardless of local manage- ending financial support for his ment. Marine biologist Peter Houk organization. Green says it was “one of the University of Guam says that of the hardest conversations [he’s] climate change seems to be increas- had” in his job as the Foundation’s ing the frequency of disturbances on advisor in the region. Andrew calls it reefs, reducing the time they have “devastating.” The Foundation has to recover. “We have gone from a funded the 163-square-mile Helen ten-year disturbance cycle to a five- Reef MPA since 2000, when it was year disturbance cycle,” he says. The created. window for recovery is narrowing.

While Palau and FSM have primarily dedicated their attention to the reefs that ring their shores, the countries have both in recent years recog- nized the importance of the offshore Coastal ecosystems face threats from outside fisheries that surround their islands and inside their borders. further out at sea. In 2009, Palau cre- ated a shark sanctuary in its waters. Six years later, it proposed requiring A legacy in observers aboard all long-line tuna Micronesia boats in its EEZ. Then it announced plans to close 80 percent of its EEZ In 2016, the Packard Foundation to all fishing, with the remaining decided to refocus its marine 20 percent open to its own fishers. conservation programs on the six Lolita Gibbons-Decherong, Palau That ocean reserve, which has been nations that have the biggest impact Conservation Society. enacted into law and is planned to on the world’s oceans: Indonesia, be in full force by 2021, will be the China, , the United States, sixth-biggest fully protected marine Mexico, and . “We have been “This movement definitely area in the world. FSM’s president, tremendously impressed with what meanwhile, signed a law in 2018 our partners in Micronesia have has strong legs that won’t that would close 10 percent of its achieved over the past 20 years,” go away when Packard says the program’s manager, John EEZ to commercial fishing. That’s an leaves,” says Leberer. important step for a country that in Claussen. But the major countries 2014 derived more than a third of its that are the subject of the new focus Groups are going to have to fill that revenue from access to its fisheries. are “where we see the greatest gap,” says Cole. But he says Packard “There’s hope, but for the fisheries potential to influence the health of has not only provided local organi- to recover it’s not going to happen the global ocean.” So Foundation zations with invaluable experience in two years,” says PICRC’s Adele funding and programs in Micronesia, working with major Western donors, Isechal. “It took twenty years for us including in Palau and FSM, will end but has also conferred international to get to where we are.” by 2020. “credibility” upon smaller groups The departure of the region’s most working in remote developing On our way back to Kolonia we pass countries with low profiles. “They’ve Black Coral Island, where two decades important marine conservation donor will surely leave a void, been able to fundraise with the fact ago Dakio Paul patrolled with his that they have been successful with bourbon, flashlight, and shotgun to says Jason Cole of MACP, as Packard Foundation support has Packard,” he adds. Indeed, Andrew save the reef. Since an impressive says during the last three years his recovery in the early 2000s, scien- been “something that people have been able to depend on for a long group has been “energized each tists say, fishers have often ignored day” to secure new sources of seasonal rules meant to protect the time.” In 2014 Stuart Green of the Packard Foundation called Wayne funding, and recent grants include massive spawning groups of fish. funding from the U.S. Agency for As a result, acknowledges the Kitti Andrew, who heads the Hatohobei Organization for People and International Development for a plan, “populations of spawning climate adaptation project, and from groupers have dramatically declined.” Environment, a conservation nonprofit that protects Helen Reef MCT for marine conservation. and Tobi island in southern Palau. Palau/FSM Profile 13 recover. Among those who stand to been trained as conservation officers, publicly thank the Foundation are and national patrol boats respond Steven Victor, who directs TNC’s when they’re needed to ward off Micronesia program, and Yim intruders. At the coastal sites now, he Golbuu, now a PhD scientist and says, “you can fill a big sack of rice full PICRC’s CEO. At the time of PICRC’s of trochus. And that goes to show that troubles, both had been researchers when we give time to nature, it will there. The Packard Foundation’s heal and replenish itself.” continued support helped them grow their careers in conservation.

When we give time to nature, it will heal and replenish itself.

Wayne Andrew, Hatohobei Organization for People and Environment.

A dry erase board at MCT lists current incoming grants from MACP, the European Union, several U.S. agencies, and other funders. “This movement definitely has strong legs that won’t go away when Packard leaves,” says TNC’s Trina Leberer.

That enduring impact may be most evident in the people that received the Foundation’s support early in their careers. Now they’re the stalwarts of Micronesian conserva- tion. In a recent evaluation of the Packard Foundation’s Western Pacific program, Cordes reflected on the Packard’s training and support for The conservation community is stronger than ever as the Packard Foundation exits Palau. Willy Kostka, for example. Given the success of CSP and MCT, Cordes “I enjoyed the ride, I learned a lot wrote, funding Kostka was one of the and I’ve made a career out of it,” says Eli Kintisch is a writer and best “early investments of funding Wayne Andrew when it’s his turn to producer in Washington, D.C. the Program would ever make.” speak. “On behalf of the people of He traveled to Palau and FSM Tobi Island,” he adds, “thank you very in April and May of 2017 to More than a dozen other recipients much.” Later I ask him if efforts to halt write this piece. He was sup- of Packard funding convene on a foreign fishing off Helen Reef had ported in writing this article warm April evening for a picnic to restored the ecosystem. In 2000, he through a grant by the David mark the Foundation’s departure. says, island elders and scientists had and Lucile Packard Foundation We are outside PICRC’s office, and surveyed coastal sites for trochus, to California Environmental the building’s curved white roof a sea snail prized by foreign fishers Associates. is bathed in red light from a post- for its hard, conical shell. The el- card-worthy sunset. Almost a ders “would walk for hours and only decade before, Packard staff had find one shell,” he says. Since then, agonized over whether to continue however, the community has set funding the beleaguered organiza- rules limiting their harvest, locals have tion, deciding ultimately to help it

APRIL 2019 14