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The Cook Islands is made up of 15 islands spread out over an exclusive economic zone of approximately two million square kilometres (750,000 square miles) in the Southern Pacific Ocean. Two of these islands are uninhabited. Total land area is just under 240 square kilometres with Rarotonga the center of Government and commerce representing just over 28 percent of the total.

In summarizing the content of this report, a small proportion of the lands of the Cook Islands, less than 30%. is affected by activities carried out in the Cook Islands. This area of land is mainly on the main island of Rarotonga. Much of the natural environment described, which is very special to the continued existence and sustainable development of the scattered islands of the Cook Islands, is at the mercy of global events. To contribute to the efforts of countries to combat land degradation, and to address the global issues, this repent provided a list of future initiatives that the Government intends to carry through in order to address the various land degradation challenges identified in this report and summarized in the table below.

The Government of the Cook Islands requested assistance from the US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry, to conduct a survey of invasive plant species of environmental concern, similar to surveys previously conducted in Micronesia, American Samoa, Nine, Samoa and Tonga. The survey was carried out from 11 March through 1 April 2002. The islands of Rarotonga, Aitutaki, 'Atiu, Mangaia, Ma'uke and Miti'aro were surveyed. Species reported by the Cook Islands Natural Heritage Project were used for the other islands (Manuae, Manihiki, Nassau, Palmerston, Penrhyn, Pukapuka, Rakahanga, Suwarrow and Takutea) as well as for some of the uncommon cultivated species on the surveyed islands.

In 1989, the kakerori (Pomarea dimidiata) was one of the 10 rarest bird species in the world with a declining population of just 29 birds. During each breeding season since then, rats have been poisoned within the 155 ha of forested hill country they occupy in southeastern Rarotonga. As a result, the kakerori population has rebounded, with a minimum of 259 birds being found on Rarotonga in August 2002. In 2001 and 2002, 20 yearlings were transferred to Atiu in the first two of three planned annual transfers to establish an ‘insurance’ population. In January 2003, three pairs of kakerori were found on Atiu, and successful breeding was proven with the discovery of six island-bred (unbanded) birds, belonging to at least two of the pairs. In 2002/03, the emphasis of management in the Takitumu Conservation Area shifted from the ‘recovery’ of kakerori to a programme aimed at ‘sustaining’ the population at about 250 individuals. The key to this work was the experimental reduction of rat poisoning effort, so that 30 territories had the standard weekly refills of poison bait stations, 29 received a fortnightly refill, and 20 received no rat control. As expected, breeding success was significantly better in poisoned areas (with an average of 0.95 fledglings per breeding territory) than in unpoisoned areas (with an average of 0.30 fledglings per breeding territory). This reduced rat control programme took 2–3 person days each week for 15 weeks, and used a total of 43 kg of Talon® (active ingredient brodifacoum), which was about 20% of peak poison use during the ‘recovery’ phase of the programme. The fortnightly poisoning regime offers promise as an effective, cheaper and less toxin-intensive method than that used previously.

The Cook Islands signed the Convention on Biological Diversity at the Earth Summit in 1992. As a Party to the Convention, the Cook Islands Government committed itself and its people to conserve its biodiversity, to use it in a sustainable manner, and to share its benefits in an equitable manner. It also committed itself to control invasive species (the weeds and pest animals in natural ecosystems and agricultural systems), and to reduce the likelihood of future invasions.

The Pacific Island Countries (PICs) are currently heavily dependent on fossil fuels. Renewable energy (RE), mostly hydro, is estimated to contribute less than 10 percent of each PICs commercial energy use and the region is characterized by scattered and fragmented efforts to promote RE technologies that are based on unreliable and unsubstantiated data on RE resource potentials. The Pacific Islands Renewable Energy Project (PIREP) will facilitate the promotion within the PICs of the widespread implementation and ultimately, commercialisation of RE technologies (RETs) through the establishment of a suitable enabling environment. The establishment of an environment conducive to the region-wide adoption and commercialisation of RETs would involve the design, development and implementation of appropriate policies, strategies and interventions addressing the fiscal, financial, regulatory, market, technical and information barriers to RE development and utilization. It will also involve the development of interventions for strengthening of the relevant institutional structures and national capacity for the coordination and the sustainable management (design, implementation, monitoring, maintenance, evaluation and the marketing) of RE initiatives in each PIC. This Project Document has been revised to reflect minor changes suggested by SPREP at a meeting Friday the 6th of September 2002 between SPREP and UNDP to improve clarity concerning internal communications in SPREP between the CTA and the management level and external communications between SPREP and UNDP management levels. Refer to Part IV - Management Arrangements and the Terms of Reference in Appendix B. C.and D.

At the Sixth Pacific Islands Conference on Nature Conservation (Pohnpei, FSM 1997), Pacific island governments, non-governmental agencies and regional and international organisations active in nature conservation in the Pacific island region again called for the establishment of a regional trust fund for nature conservation. The trust fund idea was further promoted in the 1999 - 2002 Action Strategy for Nature Conservation and was endorsed by the Governing Council of SPREP in 1998.

Waste management is a major issue for Pacific island states. For many reasons, including lack of technical expertise, land availability and cultural factors, waste is often not managed in an environmentally acceptable manner. This report addresses one component of the larger overall problem of waste management in the Pacific islands region, by concentrating on the management of the ship-generated component of the total waste stream. It is recognised, however, that advances in the management of shipgenerated waste can only be accomplished in concert with improvements in the overall management of wastes in the region.