Transcript
JACQUI EVANS: It actually sets up the Marae Moana as an area over the entire marine space of the Cooks Islands where there will be protection of biodiversity heritage values of the Cook Islands marine environment.
DON WISEMAN: Yes, and there can be commercial activity within that.
JE: yes, it is a multiple-use marine park. So it will be zoned into various areas for protection and for other areas it will be for use provided it's in line with the primary purposes of the legislation which is protection and conservation.
DW: and in terms of no commercial activity the limit is 50 nautical miles off the coast.
JE: That’s right, so 50 nautical miles beyond the beaches of every island there are marine protected areas now in the legislation which are covering 324,000 km2 of ocean.
DW: Ok, so the legislation is now passed, what happens from here?
JE: Well the legislation also establishes a Marae Moana council which is a very high-level council that approves policy and it also establishes a technical advisory group which puts together this policy and reports on progress for Marae Moana. There is also a co-ordination office which is established under the office of the Prime Minister which acts a secretariat and does all of the administrative work for the marine park.
DW: They have to be put in place yet. Given that it's taken quite a while to get from here because the idea of Marae Moana was mooted quite a few years ago, do you think the government is going to move quickly or take its time?
JE: Oh well it’s all moving pretty quickly from here because now that legislation has passed we've got the budget for the coordination office and a business plan set up, so that's all been approved. It's a matter of advertising for the staff and starting with a large master plan - action plan for all the different government agencies, non-government organisations and our tradition leaders to work towards the achieving the objectives of Marae Moana policies.
DW: Now, tourism has been this huge draw card for the Cook Islands for a long time, it seems to be going from strength to strength. Do you think that the existence of the Marae Moana will add further to that?
JE: I think it will, I think they generally attract the visitors. When you establish large wilderness areas or protected areas, heritage sites and so on they do generally attract visitors. The tourism industry is also involved in the policy and the legislation, so they'll be working together with the other agencies to make sure that tourism development is going to be in line with the principals and objectives of the Marae Moana policy.
DW: On the other hand there have been significant concerns in recent times about sewage runoff effectively into some key lagoons around Rarotonga and Aitutaki, is this an area that the Marae Moana will become involved in?
JE: The Marae Moana is effectively a framework within which these agencies can work towards objectives for the marine environment, so the projects that the government has underway already are addressing the nutrients enrichment problem within our coastal lagoon around Rarotonga. So those projects are working within the framework of the Marae Moana policy.
