Rose Ongalibang shows off the pinkish-purple powder in a small bag. “It’s taro flour,” explains the genial retiree at her home on Palau’s largest island, Babeldaob.

With its distinctive heart-shaped leaves, taro is traditionally cultivated by Palauan women in plots of land around the shores of this tiny Pacific country. The root crops provide a source of starch and have historically served as a symbol of wealth and an object of ceremonial exchange. It is also a key ingredient in Palau’s plans to make its tourism industry more sustainable, more environmentally friendly and a more level playing field for women and men.

The slow food community, which Rose and a group of her female neighbours started last year, is an example of how Palau’s Sustainable Tourism Value Chain Programme is being put into action with FAO support. For the community members, it’s a chance to refocus on taro cultivation traditions, while also finding new, innovative uses for the product.

Traditionally, Palauans have eaten taro plainly boiled, served with fish caught in the ocean that surrounds them. However, in a recent workshop, Rose says, “We made pasta, noodles, pasta sauce, cookies, bread and brownies,” using the taro flour and learned how best to package the products. “The potential is really big,” she says. Meanwhile, Rose and her fellow group members are also working to bring back tourism to an ancient village and its taro gardens, which had been abandoned.

Tourism is the most significant driver of Palau’s economy, although arrivals were slashed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Micronesian nation is determined to build back better with this multi-faceted project. Among the elements supported by FAO are a tourism value chain assessment focusing on the involvement of women, a database of heritage foods and processing practices, an inventory of local agroecological and cultural diversity and training workshops for producers aimed at improving nutrition.