January 28, 2024-
In response to the January 18, Bloomberg Green article calling into question the role of The Nature Conservancy’s work in the Republic of Palau, The Nature Conservancy’s commitment to protect the Palau National Marine Sanctuary, and implying that The Nature Conservancy has undue influence in Palau:
The Palau National Marine Sanctuary (PNMS) represents a bold commitment to ocean conservation, protecting over 80% of Palau’s ocean from fishing. The Nature Conservancy (TNC) supports the Palau National Marine Sanctuary’s current configuration and its 80% protection.
Palau has long been known for its conservation leadership.
The article wrongly asserts that our work in sustainable fishing has motivated The Nature Conservancy to influence the Palauan government to reduce the size of the Palau National Marine Sanctuary and re-open currently protected waters to commercial fishing. This incorrect assertion misrepresents our over 30 years of conservation efforts at the direction of Palauan leaders, and the strict protocols we have in place in our global work with sovereign nations like Palau.
In the summer of 2021, in the face of significant economic shortfalls, Palau’s President conveyed that the Palau National Marine Sanctuary was under threat of repeal by Palau’s congress. The reduced fishing income combined with lost tourism income as a direct result of the pandemic had put extreme stress on Palau’s economy and national budget.
A similar situation had been unfolding in Kiribati where the government did repeal its sanctuary in the Phoenix Islands as a result of similar economic stress. Palau was looking for ways to prevent this outcome in Palau’s National Marine Sanctuary.
The Nature Conservancy was asked by the Republic of Palau, alongside six other non-governmental organizations (NGOs), to help the administration and congress find a path forward. The group, led by leaders in the Republic of Palau alongside representatives of the six NGOs, did a number of analyses (including economic and fisheries analyses) to help Palau consider its options for the future of PNMS.
At Palau’s behest, The Nature Conservancy invested $7.8 million with two other conservation partners to keep the sanctuary intact for three years. This would afford them time to see if the economy would rebound post-pandemic and to find long-term solutions.
The Nature Conservancy did not encourage the government of Palau to roll back the Sanctuary for financial gain from tuna fishing – as reported by Bloomberg and others. The Nature Conservancy has a collaboration with the Republic of the Marshall Islands with the goal of transforming the global canned tuna supply chain and to supply sustainable tuna, primarily Skipjack. It’s an entirely different type of fishery than Palau’s predominantly sushi and sashimi-grade tuna.
The Nature Conservancy does not, and will not, make any money from this collaboration. The goal is to enable the Republic of the Marshall Islands to gain more value from their fishery and employ sustainable practices. Once the company is self-sustaining, The Nature Conservancy will leave this investment and the business back to the Republic of the Marshall Islands and any net income generated will go back to its island communities.
The Nature Conservancy is a science-based, non-partisan organization, and we have strict protocols for how we work with sovereign nations and governments.
We work only at the invitation of governments and are country- and community-led. The Nature Conservancy uses a rights-based framework in our work that reflects the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the principle of Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC). We do not have our own independent agenda in Palau or anywhere we work, outside of a general conservation mission.
Palau and other island nations in the Western and Central Pacific are tackling outsized challenges – from adapting to the effects of climate change to addressing illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing in their waters and unresolved bycatch issues. Unsustainable and illegal tuna fishing practices kill an estimated hundreds of thousands of non-targeted marine animals annually including endangered sea turtles, dolphins, sharks, and rays, and Palau is working with many different NGOs and international governments and partners to stop it.
The Nature Conservancy hires expert Palauans who know these complicated topics best. As with any industry, conservation professionals seek job opportunities throughout their careers that apply their skills and further their professional development – including government agencies, other conservation organizations, community projects, and vice-versa.
We admire the bold protection Palau put in motion with the Palau National Marine Sanctuary and are here to support their conservation efforts in any way we can. Ultimately, any durable solution must be for Palau, by Palau.
As the people of Palau continue to demonstrate their conservation leadership, we hope they will find a solution that is durable in its protections with science-based, responsible management of this beautiful and ecologically important place.