A new report by the Guam-based Pacific Centre for Island Security warns that an accelerated U.S. military buildup in Palau is eroding environmental safeguards and leaving communities sidelined, stirring growing local dissatisfaction. The Micronesia Security Outlook 2025, published this year, singles out alleged failures to meet environmental standards and consultation requirements under the Compact of Free Association as central concerns and links those failures to broader risks to Palau’s peace and sovereignty.
The Palau chapter of the report was authored by Jodean Remengesau, director of the Bureau of Agriculture at Palau’s Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and the Environment. Remengesau writes that while the compact grants the U.S. military exclusive use of Palauan land, waters and airspace and allows military infrastructure, it also obliges parties to meet Palau’s environmental laws and to consult communities. The report, however, contends the U.S. military “missed and fell short of fulfilling its duties and responsibilities under the compact,” leaving legal and environmental guardrails ineffective in practice.
A sharp example the report highlights is the clearing of land on Angaur, one of Palau’s 16 states, for a tactical mobile over-the-horizon radar site. According to Remengesau, the U.S. military cleared 271,807 square metres without obtaining an environmental earthmoving permit or conducting the community consultations required by Palauan law. The report says shredded tree debris from the clearing invited infestation by the invasive coconut rhinoceros beetle and was, in a rushed response, dumped on residents’ yards — an outcome the compact’s environmental stipulations were intended to prevent.
Angaur Governor Steven Salii has already taken legal action. In 2023 he sued Palau’s central government, the Palau Environmental Quality Protection Board, the U.S. government and military contractors, alleging the land disturbance occurred without an environmental impact assessment and without required permits. The litigation remains one of the most visible flashpoints in a wider public unease about how military activity is being conducted on Palau’s soil.
The report places these local disputes within the geopolitical tug-of-war between the United States and China. It notes the renegotiated compact — which began its financial cycle on October 1, 2023 — includes an US$890 million assistance package to Palau over 20 years and reaffirms U.S. defence commitments. Those commitments, coupled with the compact funds that make up a sizeable portion of Palau’s national budget, mean the U.S. military’s footprint is likely to grow. The report warns the island nation’s “peace and sovereignty as its people once knew it has been increasingly compromised by accelerated militarization.”
The report also details planned and ongoing infrastructure: a US$118 million radar project that the report says is expected to be operational in 2026, and a shoreline radar tower system that was initially presented as a single shared installation but later described as two separate projects — a disclosure the report argues eroded transparency and informed consent. Taken together, the findings raise fresh questions about how environmental compliance, statutory consultation processes and Palauan sovereignty are being managed as strategic interests intensify.
By documenting these specific instances and attaching the analysis of a senior Palauan government official, the Pacific Centre’s report adds new momentum to scrutiny of U.S. military activity in Palau. The combination of ongoing litigation, community complaints and high-value defence projects now scheduled to come online this year makes the legal, environmental and political stakes clearer — and likely to shape public debate in Palau and diplomatic exchanges with Washington in the months ahead.
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