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PacWastePlus assisted Cook Islands to improve recyclables management throughout the populated islands. This video provides a summary of the project activities.

Items are imported into the Cool Islands in growing numbers but there are currently limited viable options for their end-of-life management and or export. Most items imported are disposed of at landfills or stockpiled on vacant land.

In the Cook Islands, the Pacific Adaptation to Climate Change (PACC) project focuses on coastal zone management on Mangaia Island. The project is helping to ‘climate-proof’ coastal development, and to develop an integrated coastal management policy and plan for Mangaia

The 15 islands of the Cook Islands have been occupied by its native maori people since the great Pacific migrations in large voyaging canoes or VakaMoana, which took place fromthe Polynesian homeland of Avaiki4, possibly since 500-600AD. The deep and wide waters connecting these islands have always been used as highways and for the resources they contain. Our people developed a distinct Polynesian perspective, language, lifestyle and culture.

Energy consumption in Cook Islands is predominantly reliant on imported fossil fuels, which roughly accounts for over 99% of the country’s energy consumption. In 2009, around 12.7 million litres of diesel, 4.2 million litres of petrol, and 9.7 million litres of kerosene were imported into the country. The recorded fuel import bill stood in the vicinity of USD 57.8 million dollars with a current GDP of USD 209.8 million dollars. Petroleum fuels are supplied to Cook Islands by Mobil, Pacific Energy and Total. Triad purchases fuel from Pacific Energy for distribution within the country. Petroleum products are mainly imported from Australia and Singapore via Fiji, using local coastal tankers, to bulk storage in Rarotonga. Diesel fuel for electricity generation accounted for 7.2 million litres in 2009. Most of the kerosene and petrol imported is used for air and land transport respectively. Please click on the country name below to download the profile.

The Cook Islands energy sector relies 100 % on imported fuels for transport, electricity generation and household use. In the year 2005 the world has experienced a period of price volatility for petroleum that saw petroleum prices increase from US$ 40/bbl in mid March to US$ 70bbl in September. At present wind energy is considered to be the most attractive renewable energy source for grid connected electricity supply in the Cook Islands. For the Rarotonga system, wind energy penetration up to a maximum of 30% seems to be manageable without jeopardizing system stability and security. The significant benefits of such a project include the displacement of diesel power generation and consequent fuel and other operating savings, which are quantifiable, and the diversification of energy sources for power generation in Rarotonga and increased security of supply from a reduced dependence on foreign supplies of fuel.

The Government and UNDP have entered into a commitment to govern UNDP's assistance to the cook islands provided under the special Fund Agreement with New Zealand("SFA")Signed by the New Zealand government on its behalf on 29 june 1963. This Country Programme Action Plan together with the Annual Workplans(AWP),(which shall be deemed annexes to this CPAP)Concluded hereunder constitute toghther the project documents as refered to in the SFA.

The purpose of the present study is to: 1/ list the presently known heterodont bivalve fauna of the Cook Islands, 2/ document the habitat specificity of the species involved in as much detail as possible, and 3/ investigate the correlation between a species' habitat specificity and its distribution among the various islands. While several studies have been done on the molluscan fauna of inner reef environments on Pacific islands (though bivalves are often neglected), there has been little work on the fauna of the outer reef slope. An important part of this study involved documenting the bivalve species living on this slope, and thus a large portion of my survey was carried out there.