Debbie Remengesau

Palau is a small-island nation but a large ocean state and the ocean that surrounds this beautiful island home is a constant reminder of how, despite its remote location, the people of Palau are inextricably linked to the rest of the world.

As the First Lady, a Palauan woman, responsible for home and land, this poses the greatest threat to survival Palau has ever encountered. Our children’s future is in peril and it will take the efforts of all of us to rewrite the ending of this story.

People say that Palau leads the world in conservation and it is true that Palau were the first country to ban nuclear testing, the first to ban the destructive practice of bottom trawling, and that our waters are the world’s first shark sanctuary - but all of these decisions were made using our ancient cultural wisdom of environmental stewardship: as Chairwoman of the Palau Legacy Project the First Lady has simply applied her people’s wisdom to grand effect.