Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 34, Number 8, 1 August 2017 — Cook Islands home to the world's largest marine park [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Cook Islands home to the world's largest marine park

By Ka Wai Ola Staff The Cook Islands may not have mueh land area - less than 100 square miles across 15 islands - but the multiple-use marine park they just established is the largest in the world. The Marae Moana marine park encompasses about 700,000 square miles of sea, including all of the Cook Islands' Exclusive Eeonomie Zone. As initially proposed, the park would have covered just the southern half of Cook Islands' EEZ but was expanded at the community's request. The legislation passed by the Cook Islands Parliament also establishes marine protected areas around eaeh of the

15 Cook Islands to protect them from large scale commercial fishing and seabed minerals activities. In total, Marae Moana protects an area larger than the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, whieh was expanded to 582,578 square miles in 2016. In his statement to Parliament, Prime Minister Henry Puna pointed out that the Cook Islands' commitment to integrated oeean conservation and management "from ridge to reef, and fromreef to oeean" is the largest undertaken by a single country. Puna elaborated in a press release, explaining that while revenue from the fisheries is important, conservation is a higher priority. "We recognize that the oeean not only

brings us revenue in terms of fisheries and tourism and potentially seabed minerals, it also brings us elean air, elean water and elean food to nourish and sustain us," he said. "We also recognise that every species living in our environment has a role to play, keeping our environment in halanee and that our livelihood and the tourism industry, together with the food supplied by the oeean, depend on healthy ecosystems." Conservation International applauded the move in a press release quoting David Emmett, Senior Vice President of Conservation International's Asia-Pacific Field Division. "Marae Moana is a unique, large scale Marine Protected Area that ensures

protection of the marine environment whilst allowing for the sustainable development aspirations of Cook Islanders. By doing so, it empowers traditional knowledge and practice as a key basis for management. In short, Marae Moana is an unparalleled approach," Emmett said. Now that the 2017 Marae Moana Act has passed, next steps include establishing a coordination office and action plan. "Marae" is a sacred eommunal meeting plaee where tribes gather to discuss tribal issues, while "Moana" is the oeean. "We all must take care of it and it is imperative that those who live and exist, both within and beyond its boundaries, do recognize and respect its sanctity," said Puna. ■

LAND & WATER

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Establishing Marae Moana will help provide food security and employment in Cook lslands. - Photos: Courtesy of Conservation lnternational

The remote Pacific lsland nation now has marine protections encompassing the entire Cook lslands' Exclusive Eeonomie Zone.