The Pacific delegation have put forward a proposal at the UNESCO World Heritage Conference in Christchurch for assistance to set up a Pasifika Heritage Fund.
Economist and Cook Islander Adrian Orr who's charged with setting up the Fund says Pacific Island states on their own don't have enough financial and skills resource to ensure that the work of the World Heritage Committee continues in the Pacific.
But he says convincing investors to put money into a region where traditions and cultures are the priorities won't be easy.
"Too often those values are seen as foreign to investors as hostile places to and they can't understand property rights are a very different concept in the Pacific region as to what you might see in the Americas or Europe."
More than 600 delegates are attending the conference which New Zealand is hosting for the first time and chaired by Tuwharetoa's paramount chief Tumu Te Heu Heu.
15 Pacific countries are members of World Heritage.
