From November 15th until November 21st Palau International Coral Reef Center (PICRC) Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Yimnang Golbuu and PICRC researchers, Ms. Evelyn Otto and Ms. Marine Gouezo attended the 2017 RETI Okinawa Symposium. The theme for this year’s symposium was, “Future Perspectives for Island Society: Suitability and Self-Management”. The RETI network (Reseau d’Excellence des Territoires Insulaires) was established in 2010 to bring islands from all over the world together to promote a common environment for academic and scientific work on the subject of sustainability.
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The RETI Symposium was held to provide a platform for researchers to share outcomes and discuss issues related to island nations. PICRC staff alongside members of the Palau Coral Reef and Island Ecosystem Project (P-CoRIE) project reported on the scientific research from their five year collaborative project. P-CoRIE, a collaboration between PICRC, Palau Community College and the University of the Ryukyus was established in 2014 to conduct research and provide science based recommendations to increase the sustainability of coral reef ecosystems in Palau. Researchers presented on topics such as: long-term coral reef monitoring, environmental changes resulting from local and global impacts, reef recovery potentials, residents’ attitude toward tourism development, economic evaluations of coral reef ecosystems and biodiversity of coral reef organisms.
While the work that PICRC is doing is directly relevant to Palau, it reaches far beyond just Palau and the region. The world continues to face increasing challenges and the research conducted by PICRC provides information that is valuable to conservation and management efforts across the globe. [/restrict]