Progress report for
Marae Moana - Cook Islands Marine Park
Achievement at a glance
CI draws from expertise designing large-scale marine managed area initiatives in other areas of the Pacific Oceanscape and around the world. The Cook Islands Government and New Caledonia have established a sister-site agreement between our large-scale marine protected areas so we can coordinate sustainable management efforts. New Caledonia will share its experience in the field of cross-cutting scientific exploration, and the Cook Islands will share its expertise in integrated governance to facilitate engagement at all levels.Challenges faced in implementation
Creating a large-scale marine protected area is a huge undertaking, and there have been issues with capacity and stakeholder engagement, however, we are networking with other nations with similar initiatives in different stages of development to learn from them so this is beneficial to all parties. One key challenge was to ensure ownership of Marae Moana, including nationwide consultations across all inhabited islands, not an easy feat considering some were only reachable by boat and the airfares to some of these islands can cost more than round the world airfares. One of the more colourful tales stemming from the consultations includes the stranding of some on one of the islands for over a month! Yet despite it all, there was perseverance to seek the input from as many Cook Islanders as possible.\r\n\r\nThis took a lot of time and was a very costly exercise but it was crucial that we did this the right way, from the very start. Marae Moana belongs to all Cook Islanders, so everyone should have a say on how we manage it.Beneficiaries
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