PSU Magazine Winter 1992

Dick Dewey tands before a bombed. out Japanese headquarters building on Pelelui island. talked with people who helped write the Palauan constitution. It was like go ing back and ta lking with Jefferson or Madison. " A special feature of Dewey's trips i the pre ence of two Palauan students, who serve not on ly as gu ides but act as door-openers to key Palauan official . ays Grover, "Because Pa lau' · is a gove rnment in miniature, you can meet virtually all the deci ion maker . The Palauan students on our trip were SP U there as colleagues, not as native guide paid by the government to tell us only what the government wanted us to hear." Thi decidedly "non-tou rist" approach i what make the field trips va luable, says herwin Davidson, dean of the chool of Extended tudie . "Dick Dewey i a per on who's imul– taneou ly exc ited about putting people in the environment it elf, while making them think and learn about the environment in a new way," David on ay . "Thi kind of trip provides the nucleu for a real interdisciplinary ap– proach to learning. Biology, political science, sociology, law, and economics are involved as well as geography." For participants meeting one-to-one with Palauan officials, there are plenty of questions to ask, and, fortunately for the environment, still time to ask them. For instance, whi le Palau has had wildlife protection laws on the books for everal decades, only recently have they been enforced. The poaching of crocodile , dugong (sea cows ), and ea snake have become such a serious problem, that the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife and The Nature Con– servancy have joined the Palauan government in strengthening environ– menta l protection laws. The Nature Conservancy has its Microne ia headquarters at Palau, and the organization i beginning a detailed ecol gical inventory of the island's diverse plant and animal life. Dewey says no one will ever know the full impact of DDT spraying on Peleliu Island during World War II becau e no thorough ecological inven– tories were taken before the war. He notes that only Peleliu Island was sprayed with DDT. The island's thick rain forest- prayed with napalm and leveled by bombs nearly 50 years ago– have prouted back and the island "has recovered for the most part," according to Dewey. He ha scores of photos showing scenes "then" and "now," proving his point. But Palauan culture sometimes clashes with environmental concerns, as field-trip participants discovered. Take for example, the unre olved cri i facing the hawksbill turtle. "It's one thing to say that the hawksb ill turtle is on the U. . en– dangered species list and should not be harvested in Palau," says Grover. "But then you go to the e (Palauan) peopie, who have been harvesting them for years. The turtle shells are th basi for women's money. In the Palauan cu l– ture, the money i needed for women to get married. How do you tell these people that after 200 years they can't continue harve ting?" Grover asks. Recent rulings will allow Palauan · to harve t enough turtle to continue past cultural practices, Dewey says. However, the ale of turtle hell jewelry to rouri t will be prohibited.