The National System of Protected Areas Act, enacted in July of 2000, established the Conservation Mosaic Approach. Mosaics are a “set of Conservation Units (UC) of equal or different category that are close, adjoining or overlapping, and other public or private protected areas” that are managed in an integrated manner, according to the goals of each UC.

To address the challenge of managing socio-environmental conflicts and optimizing human, financial, and material resources, the Bajo Río Negro Conservation Mosaic was established in 2010, with a total area of 7,329,220 hectares, and integrated by 11 UC, among them the Jaú National Park and the Unini RESEX. The implementation of this approach prioritizes conservation processes for larger areas, which allows for landscape integrated management of areas along the Jaú and Unini rivers to the north, and the Bajo Río Negro to the south of the mosaic. By viewing the protected areas like parts of a larger unit, functional and interconnected, it was necessary to include a participatory methodology in the design of management plans, that encouraged the participation of multiple actors in the decision-making process related to the administration of the territory and its natural resources.

The Jaú National Park represents one of the largest extensions of protected tropical rainforests in the world, protecting a great extent of the Aguas Negras river basin. Due to its prominence, this protected area was prioritized by the Amazon Region Protected Areas Program (ARPA),  a program created in 2002 by the Brazilian Government and managed by the Brazilian Biodiversity Fund (Funbio).

The ARPA program has the financial backing from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the German Government, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Amazon Fund, through the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES), the Moore Foundation, and currently, private companies that act as donors to the program. The program is designed to last 13 years, and it’s aimed at expanding and strengthening the Brazilian National System of Protected Areas in the Amazon, through the protection of 60 million hectares of conservation units in the Amazonian biome, and ensuring financial resources for the management of those areas in the short and long run. It is implemented in three independent and continuous phases: Phase I between 2003 and 2010, Phase II between 2010 and 2015, and Phase III with a deadline of 25 years.

The success of the National Marine Sanctuary will largely depend upon the quality of its marine surveillance and enforcement. As a Small Island Developing State (SIDS), Palau lacks the resources to adequately patrol its waters.  Throughout the process of developing and implementing the PNMS, Palau has sought active partnerships with fellow nations, NGO’s and technology providers to develop and fund a comprehensive monitoring, control and surveillance strategy.  Palau now looks forward to numerous contributions to its surveillance and enforcement capacity in the coming months.

The financing scheme for the Sanctuary is also novel.  Under the law creating the Sanctuary, all tourism visitors must pay a Pristine Paradise Environmental Fee (PPEF), which, will be used to ensure surveillance, enforcement and necessary administration of the PNMS.  A very strong effort is also underway to supplement this anticipated annual revenue of $1.5 million with contributions with country partners and friends.  Palau is in the process of raising such funds and in establishing a companion Sanctuary Endowment Fund into which the contributions will be placed.

Much of this additional funding will go towards establishing a comprehensive surveillance and monitoring program to enforce the law.  This enhanced surveillance effort has, as a critical component continued and expanded  trans boundary cooperation in the Micronesia region with neighbors and primary partners, the United States, Japan, Australia and the Republic of China, Taiwan. 

Palau has a long history of managing its fisheries. For generation upon generation, the Traditional Chiefs placed vulnerable reef areas off limits to fishing, known as a “bul,” to protect both biodiversity and the livelihoods and food security of their people. In these modern times, it is broadly accepted that “marine capture fisheries have direct impacts not only on the target market species, most significantly tuna, but also can have large impacts on a number of incidentally caught species, some of which are particularly vulnerable to overexploitation and can directly degrade habitat and can have broad indirect or collateral effects on community structure and processes. 

Using this traditional method of conservation, Palau has created a "whole-domain" management approach from ridge to reef and beyond, the most ambitous component being the Palau National Marine Sanctuary. As Palau moves forward with the implementation of the PNMS, the Bul concept is kept in the forefront of all processes.