Jim Hightower

Hey, hey, we're the USA! We're the most powerful nation in the world! And the richest! Also the smartest, right?

Uh... hold up on that last one. Powerful and rich, for sure, but smartest? I'd give that honor to a nation most Americans never heard of: Palau. The people of this tiny island nation near the Philippines are showing that they're smart enough to stop the stupidity of destroying their environment – something we sure haven't mastered.

Besides its natural beauty, the greatest economic asset of Palau is the treasure trove of edible fish that swarm in the fragile ocean reefs around the island. Local families, commercial boats, and other island businesses are dependent on the fish that come from these waters.

Yet, in the 1980s, the old ways of villagers who conserved this treasure trove through careful management both of the reefs and of the fishing catch, gave way to a global boom in seafood demand. A grab-all-you-can ethic took over, and outside commercial poachers came in with bigger boats, even using dynamite to stun the fish, scoop them out in vast amounts, and haul them away – leaving destroyed reefs and decimated fish populations in their wake.

Luckily, Palauan elders had the smarts to step in and say: "There can be no sustainable economic boom if we keep destroying the fish ecology." Then they acted, outright banning fishing in key reefs for a few years. The populations were able to reestablish, and Palau now protects some 460 square miles of reefs and lagoons. The Republic's president has issued a "Micronesian challenge" to other small island nations to conserve their fisheries, and they've responded with hundreds of "no take" zones.

If only we had such elders and the common-sense smarts of the Palauans, we could stop destroying our precious, shared resources, too. To learn about the Micronesian Challenge, go to www.mctconservation.org.