(December 17, 2024, AIMELIIK) – The West Coast Communities of Palau concluded its fourth and final community meetings for 2024 in the State of Aimeliik on Tuesday, December 17, 2024. As with the other Keiukl States, Aimeliik Rangers undertook a Communications Training to learn how to design and implement a communications plan providing education and awareness of the PAN sites in Aimeliik. The focus of the community meeting was to provide an awareness of all the current protected areas, the policies of each site, and an update of the ongoing conservation and management activities of the site. The meeting began with Governor Browny Simer welcoming the community members, providing an overview of the Dmakeiukl Alliance and introducing the Aimeliik Rangers. The Rangers proceeded with introducing the Dmakeiukl Joint Surveillance team from all the Keiukl States. The Rangers then provided an overview of all the marine and terrestrial protected areas of Aimeliik. There are currently only three Aimeliik Rangers that work daily to monitor the protected areas of Aimeliik, but together with the Dmakeiukl Joint Surveillance team of rangers and conservations officers from Ngardmau, Ngeremlengui, Ngatpang and Aimeliik, they share resources and man-power to monitor the whole of the West coast. In 2024, Dmakeiukl conducted a total of 4 Ranger-led Community Meetings in all four states of Keiukl, finishing with Aimeliik.
The Aimeliik women were able to present an update of their fisheries project of re-establishing mangrove clam farming areas. The initial work was supported by some Aimeliik Elementary Students to restore the hardened areas in the mangroves. Currently, monthly maintenance visits to the sites are conducted to keep the mangrove clam farm areas as healthy environments for the mangrove clams to grow. These are often hard physical activities and the women fishers of Aimeliik are grateful for the eager support of young students. This also provides great opportunities to share with the younger generation and pass on the practice of maintaining mangrove clam sites.
These community meetings facilitated by the Dmakeiukl Joint Surveillance team and supported by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) are made possible through the US Office of Insular Affairs and The Pacific BioScapes Programme. The United States Office of Insular Affairs (OIA) grant supports the women’s community restoration and conservation efforts to help mitigate climate change impacts affecting women, in this case women fisheries.
The Pacific BioScapes Programme is a European Union (EU) funded action, managed and implemented by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP). The Programme contributes to the sustainable development of Pacific Small Island Developing States through the implementation of 30 focused activities taking place across a diversity of ecosystems in 11 countries (Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu) that will address critical issues concerning coastal and marine biodiversity, and ecosystem-based responses to climate change adaptation.
For more information, please visit: www.sprep.org/bioscapes