From the 7th to the 17th of February, the Palau International Coral Reef Center hosted a PAN Ecological Training Course for Koror State conservation officers and rangers. This was largest PAN training course held by PICRC and was made possible because of the collaboration among Palau Community College (PCC), Protected Areas Network Office (PAN O) and Palau Coral Reef and Island Ecosystem (P-CoRIE) project.
PICRC researchers taught the course and covered techniques on surveying methods for the conservation officers and rangers to apply when monitoring Koror State PAN Sites. The participating rangers and officers earned certificates of completion after finishing 53 hours of training. During the course they gained the necessary skills to monitor MPA’s, develop sampling designs, measure the effectiveness of MPA’s, through ecological and socioeconomic surveys, and the skills to assess tourism impacts.
The Palau Protected Areas Network (PAN) was created through national law in 2003 to defend the country’s biodiversity. Ensuring effective monitoring of these sites is essential for informed management of the sites. Aside from providing a reliable source of food and sustaining continuous economic growth, coral reefs act as a buffer to the shorelines protecting against storms and erosion. Monitoring and surveying MPA’s will allow us to see how effective they are in reducing the impact of overfishing and enhancing resilience and productivity.