Celebrating 25 Years of Action for Biodiversity

Marine resources are of particular importance to the Cook Islands and marine products are important in the diets of virtually all Cook Islanders [ ] 83 Managing exploitation of ocean resources In 2012 the Cook Islands created a shark sanctuary within its waters. The development of a policy frame- work for a whale sanctuary declared in 2001 is also underway. A multi- ple-use Marine Park, Marae Moana, was created in 2017, covering the country’s entire marine jurisdiction, an area of 1.9 million km 2 . Within the park, 324,000 km 2 has been ear- marked for a higher level of protec- tion with the purpose of protecting the pelagic, benthic, coral reef, coastal, and lagoon habitats of the Marae Moana. Accordingly, all sea- bed mineral activities and large-scale commercial fishing in the area have been prohibited, but other ecological- ly sustainable uses are permitted. In addition the government has recently developed an Offshore Fish- eries Policy which has sustainability as a key objective. The Cook Islands Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) South Pacific albacore longline fish- ery has become the first Chinese tuna fleet to be certified to the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Fisheries Standard. There is an ongoing debate about the licensing of European purse-seiners to target skipjack tuna and the use of offshore fish aggre- gating devices, amid concerns that stocks of species such as bigeye and yellowfin tuna, which local fishermen rely on, may be impacted. The current long-lining fleet catch- es significant numbers of bigeye tuna which have been identified as over- fished regionally. Inshore fisheries are not apparently overfished, particu- larly due to concerns of ciguatera in Rarotonga, reduced population levels, and numbers of active fishermen in other islands. There have been no- ticeable changes in some populations but these are considered to be due to decadal climate fluctuations rather than the impacts of harvesting. Sur- veys have identified overexploitation of reef invertebrates, particularly sea cucumbers on several islands. How- ever there are mechanisms in place to address that at some sites including export bans and locally protected areas (ra’ui). The Ministry of Marine Resources is working with commu- nities demonstrating an interest in creating further ra’ui. Te Rua Manga (The Needle) Rarotonga Cook Islands T he status of Cook Islands forests is rated as ‘good to fair’ with very little change since a 1992 assessment. The country has one of the highest proportions, 62 per cent, of intact natural forests in the region and ranks third in this proportion for all Polynesian countries. This stability relates to most development having taken place on land previously cleared for agriculture, the absence of a commercial forestry industry, and significant forest areas on several islands covering Makatea (limestone outcrops) which is unsuitable for development. Alex Anderson on flickr