Cook Islands unveils world's largest marine park

The Cook Islands have declared the world's largest marine park. Photo courtesy of Benedict Adam via Flickr

Covering over one million square kilometres - 1.06 million km2 - the park will be three times the size of Australia's Great Barrier Reef Marine Park

Courtesy of BirdLife International   

September 2012. The world's largest marine park has been launched in the Cook Islands located in the Pacific Ocean. Covering over one million square kilometres - 1.06 million km2 - the park will be three times the size of Australia's Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and twice as large as the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean that topped the list of marine protected areas (MPAs) for two years.

The ambitious undertaking is being pushed by an alliance of government agencies, conservation NGOs - including Te Ipukarea Society (BirdLife in the Cook Islands) - and the tourism industry. The marine park's formal establishment marks just the beginning of a process likely to take years..

15 islands
"The Cooks' 15 islands have a combined landmass barely larger than Washington DC but their waters include environmentally valuable coral reefs and fisheries", said TIS Programme Manager Jacqui Evans. "The Cook Islands' protected zone will take in the entire southern half of the nation's waters."

With funds to raise, scientific data to collect, people to involve and zones to establish, the marine park is just at the beginning of a process that according to steering committee members will take several years. TIS are looking forward to working with overseas partners who have already expressed interest in helping establish the park. "This is just the beginning of a journey that we hope will bring people together from different perspectives to agree on a way forward with ecologically sustainable development", said Jacqui.

The precise design is still pending. Developing a detailed database for the establishment of specific zones will be the next major step for the committee developing the park. "We have to learn more about which species exist where exactly," added Jacqui.

Marea Hatziolos, the World Bank's senior coastal and marine specialist, said that the Cook Islands' initiative would help save fish stocks and promote tourism. "There's definitely an economic dimension to this, apart from protecting biodiversity," she said. "It allows small Pacific nations to generate revenue."