Palau is an Oceanian country located in Micronesia, east of the Philippines, north of Western New Guinea in Indonesia, west of the Federated States of Micronesia and occupying the westernmost tip of the archipelago of Carolinas. The country is divided into sixteen states spread over several hundred islands of which only a few are inhabited.
Palau became independent of United States tutelage in 1994, making the archipelago a very young country. Its economic dependence on the United States remains strong, but development is now mainly based on tourism. The Asia-Pacific region has for decades been growing economically, and thanks to good infrastructure, the country receives more and more tourists from the countries of this region. They come to admire beautiful seabed water that is 29°C all year, and increasingly well preserved by the local population, which sees a real advantage. Indeed, faced with the rise in sea level, more and more perceptible locally, residents have decided to move forward with a more sustainable development. It remains to be seen if in the long run, this state of mind will continue.
