Palau’s leader made a historic first State visit to New Zealand on April 13 as a new Guam‑based think tank report lays bare rising local dissatisfaction over an accelerated U.S. military buildup that critics say has sidelined environmental safeguards and community consultation.
The Pacific Centre for Island Security’s Micronesia Security Outlook 2025, which includes the Palau chapter written by Jodean Remengesau of Palau’s Bureau of Agriculture, Fisheries and the Environment, argues that guardrails meant to protect Palau’s environment and sovereignty under the Compact of Free Association are being eroded by fast‑moving defence projects. “The U.S military had missed and fell short of fulfilling its duties and responsibilities under the compact of the U.S with Palau,” Remengesau writes in the report, saying Palauans have too often been left out of planning and decision‑making.
The report focuses in part on work on Angaur, one of Palau’s 16 states, where the U.S. military cleared land for a tactical mobile over‑the‑horizon radar system without obtaining an environmental earthmoving permit or holding mandated community consultations, the paper says. Debris from tree clearing was reportedly left in piles and later dumped on residents’ yards in a rushed attempt to address an ensuing risk of invasive coconut rhinoceros beetle infestation — lapses the report says were precisely what Palau’s environmental stipulations were designed to prevent.
Those actions prompted legal action. In 2023 Angaur Governor Steven Salii filed a lawsuit against Palau’s central government, the Palau Environmental Quality Protection Board, the U.S. government and U.S. military contractors, alleging violations of Palau’s environmental laws and compact terms after 271,807 square metres of land in Angaur were disturbed without an environmental impact assessment or permits. The lawsuit remains a key element of local pushback highlighted in the new analysis.
The security report acknowledges Palau’s shifting geopolitical circumstances, noting the renegotiated Compact that began a new funding cycle on October 1, 2023, under which the United States pledged US$890 million to Palau over 20 years. That financial dependence, the paper warns, complicates Palau’s ability to resist greater military use of its territory even as defence activity expands amid escalating U.S.‑China rivalry in the region.
A US$118 million radar project by the U.S. military is expected to be operational this year, the report adds, and raises further questions over transparency after an installation initially described as a single shoreline radar tower presented as mutual infrastructure for Palau and the United States later turned out to involve separate systems. For residents and local leaders, the imminent activation of the radar will be a pivotal juncture for testing whether environmental and sovereignty concerns identified in the report are addressed.
Whipps’s State visit to New Zealand comes as these tensions are increasingly visible abroad as well as at home. The new report calls for stronger enforcement of environmental rules, clearer consultation with communities and greater transparency in defence projects — demands that are likely to shape Palau’s diplomatic engagements and domestic debates as the radar goes online and the legal challenge over Angaur proceeds.
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