Palau bans 'reef-toxic' sunscreen

Yahoo – AFP, Bernadette Carreon, January 1, 2020

Reefs all over the world are being affected by the toxins in sunscreens (AFP Photo/
DONALD MIRALLE)

Koror (Palau) (AFP) - Palau's pioneering ban on "reef-toxic" sunscreens took effect Wednesday as the tiny Pacific island nation introduced strict environmental measures that also include one of the world's largest marine sanctuaries.

"We have to live and respect the environment because the environment is the nest of life, and without it nobody in Palau can survive," President Tommy Remengesau told AFP as the new laws took effect.

Palau, which lies in the western Pacific about halfway between Australia and Japan, is renowned for its marine life and is regarded as one of the world's best diving destinations, but the government is concerned its popularity is coming at a cost.

Remengesau said there was scientific evidence that the chemicals found in most sunscreens were toxic to corals, even in minute doses.

With Palau's popular dive sites regularly packed with tourists there were concerns a build-up of these chemicals would irreparably harm the reefs.

From New Year's day, any reef-toxic sunscreen imported or sold in Palau will be confiscated and the owner will be fined US$1,000.

"When science tells us that a practice is damaging to coral reefs, to fish populations, or to the ocean itself, our people take note and our visitors do too," Remengesau said.

Map locating Palau. The tiny Pacific island nation's pioneering ban on 

"reef-toxic" sunscreens took effect on New Year's Day (AFP Photo/Gal ROMA)

"Toxic sunscreen chemicals have been found throughout Palau's critical habitats, and in the tissues of our most famous creatures.

"We don't mind being the first nation to ban these chemicals, and we will do our part to spread the word. With better education and awareness, more jurisdictions will have the confidence to take this necessary action.

"The science is clear, and once that message has spread, we will be the first of many."

Along with the sunscreen ban, Palau’s much-touted marine sanctuary came into effect on January 1, closing 80 percent of its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) to fishing and other marine activities including mining and shark finning.

"It is a very ambitious and worthy goal for Palau's future," Remengesau said. The marine sanctuary prohibits commercial fishing in about 500,000 square kilometres (190,000 square miles) of ocean.

The legislation also requires most foreign fleets working in the limited fishing area to land their catch in Palau and then pay an export tax.

Environment Minister Umiich Sengebau said the law ensures Palau has first rights to purchase fish caught in the area to satisfy the local demand before exports are allowed.

Remengesau said the ban was needed to "let the ocean heal" after years of mass commercial fishing in the Pacific that has seen stocks of some species such as bluefin tuna fall to critical levels.

It follows Palau's establishment of the world's first shark sanctuary in 2009 to prevent finning -- a practice that sees fish have their fins hacked off before they are thrown back into the sea to die.

Pacific's Cook Islands mulls new name

Yahoo – AFP, 5 March 2019

Dancers from the Cook Islands perform during a ceremony in the capital,
Avarua. The government is considering changing the name of the tiny nation to
something more traditional

The tiny Pacific nation of Cook Islands is considering changing its name to something that reflects its Polynesian culture, rather than honouring the British explorer James Cook.

The government set up a committee in January to find a new indigenous name for the grouping of 15 islands, about 3,000 kilometres (1,900 miles) northeast of New Zealand.

Initially the idea was to have the indigenous moniker feature alongside the existing Cook Islands name, in the same way that its larger neighbour is sometimes known as Aotearoa-New Zealand.

But committee chairman Danny Mataroa said Monday that once discussions began it became apparent there was support for dropping the Cook Islands name altogether in favour of one in the local language, known as Cook Islands Maori.

Map showing the Cook Islands

"When the committee members, which include Cook Islands historians and people with deep traditional knowledge, met we decided it was time we change the name of the country," he told AFP.

Mataroa said the new name should reflect the country's heritage, its people and its strong Christian belief.

Deputy Prime Minister Mark Brown backed the move, but said there was still a long way to go before the nation of 12,000 people changed its name.

"I'm quite happy to look at a traditional name for our country which more reflects the true Polynesian nature of our island nation," he told Radio New Zealand.

It is not the first time the issue has surfaced, with a 1994 referendum to change the name to Avaiki Nui resoundingly defeated.

Weightlifter Sam Pera parades the Cook Islands flag during the opening ceremony 

of the 2004 Olympic Games. The tiny Pacific Ocean nation is considering a name 

change to something more traditional

The Cook Islands were a British protectorate from 1888 until 1900, when they came under New Zealand's jurisdiction.

The Cooks gained independence in 1965 but maintains close ties to Wellington, which takes responsibility for the Cooks' external affairs and allows its citizens to live and work in New Zealand.

Australia doctors demand children be freed from immigration detention

Yahoo – AFP, Martin Parry, 12 Oct 2015

A woman holds a banner at a rally in support of refugees and asylum seekers,

in Sydney, on October 11, 2015 (AFP Photo/Peter Parks)

Australian doctors on Monday ramped up pressure on the government over its hardline policy on asylum-seekers, saying children they treat from immigration centres should not be returned to detention where conditions could harm them.

Thousands of Australians rallied over the weekend urging Pacific island detention camps be shut, and medical professionals at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne are reportedly refusing to discharge asylum-seeker patients if they are to be locked up again.

The stance was backed by the Australian Medical Association (AMA) and the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP).

Ethnic Syrians attend a rally in support of

 refugees and asylum seekers, in Sydney, on

October 11, 2015 (AFP Photo/Peter Parks)

AMA president Brain Owler said children behind bars suffered psychologically and doctors faced an ethical dilemma.

"Doctors are put in a very difficult position," he told national radio.

"If we had a child that comes into our hospital that we feared if sending them back to an environment which we felt was going to be harmful, where they were at risk of abuse, we would be negligent if we sent them back to that environment.

"And that is what the doctors at the Royal Children's Hospital are saying. We cannot send children back to an environment where they're going to be harmed."

RACP president Nick Talley added in a statement that "time and again, the Australian public has seen inquiries and heard excuses for the wrongs committed against children inside these detention centres".

"The health and well-being of children should never be open to compromise. No child should be held in detention," he said.

All asylum-seekers coming by boat to Australia are now sent to camps in Papua New Guinea and Nauru and ultimately denied resettlement in Australia even if they are found to be genuine refugees.

Although the tough policy, which also includes turning back boats, has stopped frequent drownings, human rights organisations have slammed the prolonged detention, particularly of children, as a breach of Australia's legal obligations.

Canberra has also been accused of drawing a veil of secrecy over its treatment of asylum-seekers with new laws introduced this year criminalising the disclosure of information about boatpeople in its care, including by doctors.

Harsh policy

Owler estimated some 200 children were being held, about half in Australia and the rest offshore. Government figures recently said 86 children were on Nauru.

Distressed about the welfare of dozens of patients brought to the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne while in immigration detention, staff on Sunday penned an emotive opinion piece for the Herald Sun newspaper.

A demonstrator (L) representing the NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association, 

seen at a rally in support of refugees and asylum seekers, in Sydney, on October 11,

2015 (AFP Photo/Peter Parks)

"As health staff at a leading children's hospital, our duty is to support child health. We cannot accept or condone harm to children. Detention causes harm and it must end," it said.

"We call for moral leadership on this issue to find a solution, quickly -- to use alternatives to detention and to stop the harm."

The numbers of children in immigration detention peaked at 1,992 in mid-2013 under the former Labor administration, but they have been significantly reduced since the conservative government was elected in September that year.

Since ousting Tony Abbott for the leadership of the Liberal Party and the government last month, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has admitted to concerns about the Pacific camps. But he has given no indication of immediate policy changes.

"Nobody wants to have children in detention ... we have been working very hard to reduce those numbers," he told parliament Monday, while advocating a tough asylum-seeker policy as a necessary deterrent.

"We recognise that our border protection policy is tough, we recognise many would see it as harsh. But it has been proven to be the only way to stop those deaths at sea and to ensure that our sovereignty and our borders are safe."

Australia doctors demand children be freed from #immigration detention http://t.co/oSHkZyvn5V pic.twitter.com/s9yLBKHA2Z

— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) 12 oktober 2015

Related Article:

Nauru opens gates at refugee detention center

Migrant crisis will make Germany stronger: refugee coordinator - New

EU states agree relocation of 120,000 refugees 'by large majority' 

UN Security Council approves EU anti-trafficking mission

"The New Human P1" - Sep 19-20, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

"Return of the Masters" - Apr 11-12, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

Nauru opens gates at refugee detention center

Nauru has said that it will allow refugees held at a controversial Australian detention center to move freely around the tiny island. But the move has not allayed human rights concerns about conditions in the camp.

Deutsche Welle, 5 Oct 2015

The Nauru government said on Monday that asylum seekers at the center would no longer be kept locked up, but given complete freedom of movement on the Pacific island, which has an area of some 21 square kilometers (8.1 square miles).

It also said it would ensure that all asylum applications by the 600 refugees still living on the island would be processed by the end of this week.

"The start of detention-free processing is a landmark day for Nauru and represents an even more compassionate program, which was always the intention of our government," said Justice Minister David Adeang.

Widespread condemnation

The United Nations and human rights groups have strongly criticized the harsh conditions at the camp on Nauru, which was set up as part of Canberra's hardline asylum-seeker policies, under which people trying to reach Australia by boat must have their asylum claims processed outside Australian territory.

Another camp has been established on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea.

An independent UN investigator last month postponed a fact'finding trip toAustralia, complaining that the government was not cooperating in helping him gain access to the offshore camps.

'Fundamental problems remain'

Adeang said Australia, which welcomed Nauru's announcement, was providing more police support and health care for the asylum seekers to aid the transition to an "open center."

Refugee advocates, who have alleged that a number of human rights violations, including rape and child abuse, have occurred at the offshore camps, say the change coincides with a court case this week in Australia in which the legality of Canberra's refugee policy is being challenged.

Rights groups say children in the
camps are at especial risk

A spokesman from the Melbourne-based Human Rights Law Center said the move did little to help the cause of people detained on the island.

"A transition to an open center [is] and important and hard-won improvement, but letting people go for a walk does not resolve the fundamental proglems caused by indefintely warehousing them on a tiny remote island," Daniel Webb said, calling the camp environment "clearly unsafe for women and children."

Compassionate approach?

Australia has defended its harsh policy, which has also seen boats carrying refugees turned back to Indonesia or other countries of departure, as being necessary to stop people drowning at sea. No one processed at the Nauru or Papua New Guinea camps is eligible to move to Australia, even if their asylum claims are adjudged to be valid.

New Australian Prime Minster Malcolm Turnbull last month voiced concern about conditions in the camps, but did not indicate any major change in policy.

tj/msh (AFP, Reuters)

Photos emerge of incredible Easter Island discovery

News.com.au, June 10, 2015

Archaeologists dig up the famous statues. Picture: Easter Island Statue
Project Source: Supplied

THERE’S a lot more to Easter Island’s famous statues than first meets the eye.

A new series of photographs of the 2012 excavation has emerged that captures the moment archaeologists dug out the previously hidden stone bodies, discovering a surprising secret along the way; the monoliths were covered in detailed ancient tattoos.

The images have been shared widely on social media, being viewed more than 1 million times on Imgur.

They show intricate markings such as crescents, which academics say represent the canoes of the local Polynesians, the UK’s Mirror reports. Little else is known about the markings yet.

Detailed markings are visible. Picture: The Easter Island Statue Project
Source: Supplied

There are 887 huge statues carved between AD 100 and 1800 — which are up to 10 metres tall. Members of the Easter Island Statue Project have been excavating the statues for years, and provided the first photos of their torsos in 2012. This surprised many, with people believing they only had heads.

“The reason people think they are (only) heads is there are about 150 statues buried up to the shoulders on the slope of a volcano, and these are the most famous, most beautiful and most photographed of all the Easter Island statues,” Jo Anne Van Tilburg from the Easter Island Statue Project said.

“This suggested to people who had not seen photos of (other unearthed statues) that they are heads only.”

They are fascinating. Picture: The Easter Island Statue Project Source: Supplied

In 1919 pictures of the first excavations by the Mana Expedition to Easter Island revealed that some statues were full sized. The discovery was confirmed in 1955 by the explorer Thor Heyerdahl when his Norwegian Archaeological Expedition excavated a statue.

Over subsequent decades the discoveries were gradually forgotten, known by archaeologists but not by tourists, who began visiting the isolated island in the 1990s.

They’re discovering an island that was first settled by Polynesian people who arrived by canoe as part of a great wave of Pacific colonisation.

Much remains unknown about the statues — how were they made? How was such a remote island populated? How were they moved around the island? And what happened to the society that had resorted to cannibalism by the time Captain James Cook visited in 1774?

Related Articles:

The Mysteries Revealed of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) (5) - Oct 18-21, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

"The Timing of Creation" – Aug 12, 2012 (a message from Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)

Tongan king crowned in traditional ceremony

Yahoo – AFP, 4 July 2015

Tonga's King Tupou VI (L) and Queen Nanasipau'u attend "Education Day" at

 the Teufaiva Stadium during the week-long coronation celebrations in 

Nuku'alofa on July 1, 2015 (AFP Photo/Pesi Fonua)

Nuku'alofa (Tonga) (AFP) - Tupou VI was formally crowned King of Tonga on Saturday before thousands of people including heads of state and dignitaries from around the world, capping a week steeped in traditional rites.

Because it is taboo for Tongans to touch their king's head, a retired Australian minister was flown in to perform the televised crowning.

The new king also becomes the 24th Tu'i Kanokupolu, an ancient Tongan title that pre-dates the monarchy by centuries.

Japan's Crown Prince Naruhito 

(centre L) and Crown Princess Masako

 (centre R) arrives at Nuku'alofa on 

July 3, 2015 (AFP Photo)

Celebrations and ancient rituals leading up to the coronation began last Saturday with a Taumafa Kava, a traditional ceremony in which Tupou VI drank the mildly narcotic kava drink to confirm his title as king of Tonga.

The historic rite -- in which about 150 nobles, wearing traditional ta'ovala mats around their waists, sat in a circle to drink kava from coconut shells -- launched seven days of street parties, black-tie balls, fashion shows and feasting before the king was crowned by Australian D'Arcy Wood.

"No Tongan citizen can do it as it is forbidden for a Tongan to touch the king's head," the 78-year-old retired Methodist minister said last week before flying to Tonga from his home near Melbourne.

Wood was born in Tonga when his father worked there in 1924 and met the new king when he was Tonga's High Commissioner to Australia in the 1990s.

Tupou VI, 55, ascended to the throne following the death of his bachelor brother Tupou V, who died in 2012 after a six-year reign of major reforms that expanded democracy in the nation of about 110,000 people.

An estimated 15,000 people, mainly expatriate Tongans, flew in for the coronation, with the invited guests including Japan's Crown Prince Naruhito, his wife Princess Masako, and European royals Prince Georg von Habsburg from Hungary and Princess Marie-Therese von Hohenberg from Austria.

Hundreds of school children sitting on traditional mats, formed a guard of honour as the robed King Tupou VI and his wife, Queen Nanasipau'u arrived at the Free Wesleyan Centenary Church for the ceremony.

The celebrations were to continue in the evening with a Tupakapakanava -- the lighting of torches along the coast line -- and will end on Tuesday with a military tattoo.

Schoolchildren perform for Tonga's King Tupou VI and Queen Nanasipau'u on

 "Education Day" at the Teufaiva Stadium during the week-long coronation 

celebrations in Nuku'alofa on July 1, 2015 (AFP Photo/Linny Folau)

Deep respect for Tongan monarchy

Although Tonga has economic problems including high youth unemployment, most of its citizens have deep respect for their monarchy and the lavishness of the coronation was not a concern.

Auckland-based Ofa Taufo'ou, who returned home for the celebrations, told Radio New Zealand that Tongans valued their royalty and culture.

"I don't have the words to explain how much it means to me to have royalty, and to have this occasion," he said.

Wood said Tonga's affection for their monarch was deeply entrenched in their history.

"The monarch represents for them continuity and security -- a symbolic role which unites and reassures the people."

Tonga's monarchy can trace its history back 1,000 years and by the 13th century the nation wielded power and influence over surrounding islands, including Samoa, nearly 900 kilometres (560 miles) to the east.

Tupou I, who converted to Christianity after coming under the influence of missionaries, was proclaimed king in 1845 after winning control of the monarchy from two other royal lines.

By 1900 the country had become a British protectorate and acquired its independence in 1970. It remains the only monarchy among South Pacific island nations.

Indonesia, PNG Agree To Strengthen Cooperation In Various Fields

Jakarta Globe, aacc2015.id, Apr 21, 2015

AACC2015, Jakarta – Indonesia and Papua New Guinea (PNG) have agreed to boost bilateral cooperation in the economic fields.

The two countries are also committed to addressing trans-national crime, as stated by Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Retno Marsudi at the Jakarta Convention Center (JCC), Sunday (19/4).

“The Governments of Indonesia and PNG have discussed cooperation in various fields, such as economic field and cultural field ,” Ms. Marsudi said after a bilateral meeting between the two countries.

According to Ms. Marsudi, following up of the talks, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two countries has been signed.

She also said that the Indonesian government has also invited the PNG government to be present in a meeting in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), in October 2015, as a follow-up to their cooperation in the cultural field.

“We also agreed to establish a joint commission in various fields, such as in economic field, to boost investment,” she added.

Meanwhile, PNG Foreign Minister Rimbink Pato said that during the talk, they did not discuss issues on both countries’ border in specific.

According to him, the issues have been discussed in their previous meeting.

The Minister also stated the two countries have had close cooperation ties in various fields such as in economc field.

“We have discussed a number of issues, including measures on addressing international crime and connectivity in the Pacific region,” he said.

Mr. Pato added that the PNG government also put their focus on cooperation in the field of institutional strengthening.

“We hope President Joko Widodo could pay a visit in PNG in October 2015,” he concluded. 

(Editor: Gusti Andry, M. Ersan Pamungkas Translator: Penny Patmawati)

Indonesia Strengthens Outreach to Pacific Isles

Jakarta Globe, Apr 20, 2015

Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi speaking at the opening of the Asian-African
Conference in Jakarta on Monday. (Antara Photo/Sigid Kurniawan)

Jakarta. Indonesia is pushing for more cooperation with Pacific island countries at the Asian-African Conference in Jakarta this week by helping countries in the region through a multitude of means.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno L.P. Marsudi met on Sunday with seven of her counterparts for separate talks on the sidelines of the conference, four of them from Pacific island nations.

Vanuatu’s foreign minister, Meltek Sato Kilman Livtunvanu, said his country considered Indonesia to be “the gateway to Asia” and was looking for greater cooperation with Southeast Asia’s biggest economy in trade, agriculture, tourism, and disaster mitigation capabilities.

In early April, the Indonesian government sent $2 million worth of aid to Vanuatu after a devastating cyclone hit the country and left more than a dozen people dead and thousands homeless.

Kilman said Vanuatu was also preparing to open an embassy in Jakarta in a bid to enhance bilateral relations.

“Vanuatu has a great diplomatic relationship with Indonesia. Therefore, Vanuatu hopes to have its embassy in Jakarta,” he said as quoted by state news agency Antara.

“Indonesia and Vanuatu will also be able to experience stronger bilateral relations in the future and be able to discuss various global issues together,” Kilman added.

Vanuatu is among the more than 80 nations that have sent delegates to Indonesia for the Asian-African Conference this week, taking place in Jakarta and Bandung through Friday.

Retno said the Indonesian government welcomes Vanuatu’s plan.

“We are very excited and proud of Vanuatu’s decision to open an embassy in Jakarta. This means that almost all countries of the Pacific will have an embassy here,” she said.

She added that both countries were committed to discussing the technicalities of establishing resident embassies and opportunities for partnership in other sectors.

“We have talked about boosting partnership in the economic, engineering and agricultural sectors, where we already have very good cooperation with Vanuatu,” Retno said.

The minister also expressed her optimism about where relations were going between Indonesia and other Melanesian countries in the Pacific.

Melanesia extends from Fiji to the Arafura Sea and is commonly thought to include Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, West Papua and the Maluku islands. The latter two are part of Indonesia.

“Indonesia’s Melanesians are about to become larger than other groups of Melanesians. So I tell you this: Indonesia is Melanesia and Melanesia is Indonesia,” Retno said, as quoted by CNN Indonesia.

Retno also met with her counterpart from the Solomon Islands, Milner Tozaka; Fiji’s Ratu Inoke Kubuabola; and Papua New Guinean Foreign Minister Rimbink Pato.

Pato and Retno discussed increasing trade between the two neighbors. The countries will stage a joint ministerial committee in September to discuss cooperation in a number of areas from sports, education, energy and mineral resources to telecommunications.

Papua New Guinea, Retno said, is also interested in learning more about Indonesia’s recent plans to boost its fisheries and maritime sector. She said several Indonesian companies were interested in investing or expanding their operations in Papua New Guinea.

Solomon Islands Foreign Minister Tozaka said his country was looking to send more students to study in Indonesia.

“We have several cooperation [agreements] in agriculture and education. We have several students studying here and we are aiming at increasing [their numbers],” he said as quoted by Antara.

Retno said that to further strengthen ties with Melanesian countries, Indonesia was looking to host a festival on Melanesian art and culture in October in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara.

“Through cultural and arts events like this, we can establish more people-to-people contacts,” she said.

Retno also met with South Africa’s foreign minister, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane; Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari; and Nepal Foreign Minister Mahendra Bahadur Pandey.

Related Article:

The Mysteries Revealed of Rapa Nui (5) - Oct 18-21, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

"The Timing of Creation" – Aug 12, 2012 (a message from Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)

Vanuatu to Open Embassy in Jakarta

Jakarta Globe, Apr 20, 2015

Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, right, chats with Vanuatu's Foreign Minister
 Meltek Sato Kilman Livtunvanu, left, on the sidelines of the 60th Asian-African
Conference in Jakarta. (Antara Photo/Akbar Nugroho Gumay)

Jakarta. Vanuatu is preparing to open an embassy in Jakarta in a bid to enhance bilateral relations, the foreign affairs minister of the Pacific Island nation announced on Sunday.

“Vanuatu has a great diplomatic relationship with Indonesia. Therefore, Vanuatu hopes to have its embassy in Jakarta,” Minister Meltek Sato Kilman Livtunvanu said on Sunday, as cited by state-run news agency Antara.

“Indonesia and Vanuatu will also be able to experience stronger bilateral relations in the future and be able to discuss various global issues together,” Kilman added.

Vanuatu is among the 80-plus nations gathering in Indonesia for the Asian-African Conference, which is taking place in Jakarta and Bandung until Friday.

Indonesia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi said on Sunday that the government welcomes Vanuatu’s plan.

“We are very excited and proud of Vanuatu’s decision to open its embassy in Jakarta. This means that almost all countries of the Pacific will have an embassy here,” Retno said.

She added that both countries are committed to discussing the technicalities of establishing resident embassies and opportunities for partnership in other sectors.

“We have talked about boosting partnerships in the economic, engineering and agricultural sectors where we already have very good cooperation with Vanuatu,” Retno said.

The minister also expressed her optimism about where relations are going between Indonesia and other Melanesian countries in the Pacific.

Melanesia extends from Fiji to the Arafura Sea and is commonly thought to include Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, West Papua and the Maluku islands. The latter two are part of Indonesia.

“Indonesia’s Melanesians are about to become larger than other groups of Melanesians. So, I tell you this: Indonesia is Melanesia and Melanesia is Indonesia,” Retno said, as cited by news portal CNNIndonesia.com.

In early April, the Indonesian government sent $2 million worth of aid to Vanuatu after a devastating cyclone hit the country and left 11 dead and thousands homeless.

Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, center, sends off the Indonesian aid

delegation to cyclone-hit Vanuatu. (Antara Foto/Rivan Awal Lingga)

Related Article:

Indonesia Sends Aid to Cyclone-Hit Vanuatu

Chinese Descend on Remote Palau as Wanderlust Deepens

Jakarta Globe, Sébastien Blanc, Mar 16, 2015

A Chinese tourist walking on a beach on the Rock Islands in Palau on
March 6, 2015. (AFP Photo/Sébastien Blanc)

Koror, Palau. Chinese tourists are flocking to the remote Palau islands as China’s growing number of rich seek new frontiers abroad, but not everyone in the Micronesian paradise is happy about it.

Strapped into life-jackets and screaming with excitement, groups of boisterous Chinese thrill-seekers tear around Palau’s “Milky Way” lagoon on a flotilla of speedboats — a spectacle unfamiliar to locals just a few months ago.

Residents of the archipelago, part of the larger island group of Micronesia, are baffled as to why Chinese travellers represented almost 62 percent of all visitors in February — up from 16 percent in January 2014.

For businessman Du Chuang from Chengdu in China’s Sichuan province, it is because his increasingly wealthy countrymen are becoming more adventurous, smashing the stereotype of the herded package tour.

Du first started to travel by visiting Hainan, the Chinese island in the South China Sea currently witnessing a massive development of hotel resorts. He then ventured to Thailand before branching out to the Maldives.

”The corals here are more beautiful than Sanya [on Hainan],” the 46-year-old told AFP, scrolling through photos on his phone of a $1,400 helicopter trip over Palau’s Seventy Islands that he took his family on.

”Palau is small and magnificent,” added the owner of a successful IT company.

Hoteliers are catching on, with some establishments focusing on Chinese clientele booked out months in advance. At “Sea Passion Hotel” in Koror, 74 of their 75 rooms were occupied by Chinese visitors when AFP visited.

On a beach Chinese women wearing full body suits to protect themselves from the sun pose for selfies with husbands and boyfriends in sleeveless vests, which they send to their friends back home in China’s grey megacities.

‘It’s like paradise’

Jia Yixin, a 30-year-old from Shanghai, didn’t think twice about paying $1,133 for a six-day trip to Palau that she found online.

”It is like paradise here,” she beamed. “In Shanghai the air is polluted but here people respect the environment,” Jia added.

Ironically it is the potential environmental impact of the Chinese invasion that is at the forefront of the minds of many of the islands’ 18,000 population.

Palau welcomed just shy of 141,000 visitors last year, up 34 percent on 2013, largely on the back of the Chinese visitors. But in February this year, mainland Chinese visitors leaped more than 500 percent year-on-year to 10,955 — more than half Palau’s total population.

Tourism accounts for close to 85 percent of Palau’s gross domestic product, and while profits are up, some are worried the long-term damage may be too great.

”This is a very sudden influx, so we are trying to understand the situation” said Nanae Singeo, managing director of the Palau Visitors Authority, the local tourist board.

”We have never experienced this much tourism before and the magnitude is really giving us a lot of pressure. We are a very tiny country with scarce resources so this sudden increase is an unknown challenge for us,” she added.

Palau has long catered for a particular type of visitor, with up to 70 percent of tourists coming for world-famous diving in stunning blue waters with pristine corals.

Japanese were traditionally the largest contingent, followed by Taiwanese and Korean visitors. But the majority of the new wave of Chinese tourists seem more interested — for now at least — in lounging on the beach.

”We are not seeing a growth rate to match the number of visitors,” said Singeo. “Tourists are up 34 percent so technically we should see economic benefits at the rate of 30 percent or more, but that’s not the case.”

‘They wreck corals’

On the streets of Koror, some accused Chinese people of being noisy and disrespectful towards the environment.

”They wreck corals and throw their rubbish in the sea,” chided Norman, a taxi driver.

In another recent example, a Chinese tour operator named “Yellow Skin Tour” caused outrage in Palau with leaflets including photos of grinning Chinese tourists holding up turtles they had removed from the water — in one case by its flippers.

Residents have also accused Chinese tourists of being responsible for the deaths of some jellyfish at the natural wonder “Jellyfish Lake.”

Visitors are encouraged to marvel at the harmless creatures by floating on the surface, but some locals complain that many Chinese lack swimming skills and thrash around, disturbing the wildlife.

The Palau government is exploring ways to try to stem the tide of Chinese tourists to the western Pacific Ocean archipelago and this week said the number of charter flights from China would be halved next month.

President Tommy Remengesau said the move was not intended to discriminate against any nationality but was to prevent tourism from becoming too reliant on one market.

”Do we want to control growth or do we want growth to control us?” he asked reporters. “It will be irresponsible for me as a leader if this trend continues. I am not only looking at the present but, as a leader, I am looking after tomorrow.”

But the number of hotels, restaurants and guides in Palau now catering for a Chinese market would suggest that citizens of the world’s second-largest economy are likely to keep coming.

Agence France-Presse