Description of the Helen Reef Project

The Hatohobei State Government, the Community Conservation Network (a nonprofit organization), the Tobian (Hatohobeian) people, the Palau National Government, and other stakeholders, are working together to plan and implement a long-term strategy for the conservation, sustainable use, and management of Helen Reef (Hotsarihie), a near-pristine atoll in the western Pacific.  Helen Reef Project participants are working together to develop the necessary relations, understanding, and capacity to address complex conservation issues such as resource security and ecosystem sustainability.

Helen Reef is one of the Pacific's most outstanding atoll complexes in terms of its high marine biological diversity, ecological integrity, and abundance of biomass. Lying close to the Indo-Pacific center of marine biodiversity in Southeast Asia, Helen Reef has the highest known hard coral diversity (272 species) among Pacific atolls. The reef is 163 square kilometers in extent and includes a large enclosed atoll with extensive reef flats, and a small island which is an important overflight refuge for several species of seabirds.  Helen Reef, located some 600 kilometers south of the main islands of Palau and 65 kilometers east of Tobi Island (Hatohobei), is a traditional fishing ground of the Tobian people.

The Tobian people traditionally have relied on the rich marine resources of Tobi and Helen Reef and these places and their ecosystems remain an important cultural, subsistence, and economic resource for them today. In recent decades, Helen has been pillaged by foreign fishermen in search of valuable marine commodities and adversely impacted by locally-driven harvesting. Some of Helen Reef's resources and habitats have sustained wide-scale damage from over-exploitation.

Accomplishments of the Helen Reef Project include

• Involvement in a comprehensive survey of biodiversity and marine resources at Helen Reef (Birkland et al., 2002) and creation of a base map for future GIS mapping and information management;
• Adoption by the Hatohobei State Legislature of the Helen Reef Management Act establishing the Helen Reef Conservation Area;
• Formation of the Helen Reef Action Committee comprised of State representatives and CCN members;
• Relationships with resource management entities in Palau including the Palau Conservation Society, The Nature Conservancy, Palau's Marine Resources Consortium of the Pacific (MAREPAC) unit, the Palau International Coral Reef Center, the Bureau of Lands and Surveys, the Division of Marine Resources, the Division of Maritime Enforcement, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and others;
• Training Tobians in SCUBA diving, resource monitoring, and data recording, and regional conference participation;
• Participation in regional Locally Managed Marine Area networks; and
• Fundraising and consideration of sustainable financing mechanisms.

Coordination with the Government of Palau has resulted in assistance by the Palau Marine Enforcement Division to the Helen Reef Project. Pilot enforcement and surveillance strategies are underway at Helen Reef.