In Malama Honua, the President of Palau is encouraging Hawai'i to join a fast-growing global island partnership to help conserve our natural and unique environment.

Palau is an example of finding balance between conservation and economy.

Palau is a beautiful island nation in the western pacific, known for its rock islands and pristine waters...its President, Tommy Remengesau says recognizing the inheritance of such a special part of the world, comes with the responsibility to care for it for this and future generations.
The key, is finding balance.

President Remengesau says, "Palau is like Hawai'i and I always like to say that the environment is the economy and the economy is the environment we cannot separate the two."

"Because you destroy the environment then you destroy the future of Palau."
He says community support is crucial.

"We do not have enough resources on the national level to really do a good protection and implementation of the law but with the backing of the community, everybody acts as the police force."

The law is based on a still-recognized cultural tradition similar to Hawai'i's Kapu system, prohibition declared by village chiefs.

For business, he says some, such as those that harvest ocean resources to depletion, are simply not allowed.

"Palau has made a conscious decision that some industries are not good for the environment."

His government conserves one-third to one-half of palau's marine areas...allowing fish to repopulate and help populate the other half where fishing and commercial uses are allowed....Palau is part of what's called the micronesia challenge, involving 5 nations with a deadline of 2020.

"And that means we are going to effectively conserve at least 30 percent of our marine ecosystem and 20 percent of our forest terrestrial resources."

It's success is leading to a global island partnership...he hopes Hawai'i will join in.