This is the first volume in the WCPA Good Practice Guidelines that is predominantly by rangers and for rangers. The editors worked with partners to collect good practices and stories from rangers worldwide, reflecting global experience and lessons learned.
The global race to safeguard irreplaceable ecosystems is nearing a critical threshold, and the window to protect vital areas for climate stability, biodiversity, and human wellbeing is rapidly closing. Growing pressure from extractive industries, including oil, gas, and mining, is putting irreplaceable ecosystems and Indigenous Territories at risk, especially across the pantropical belt. Protected and conserved areas are well-documented to be important safe havens for nature amidst an ever-expanding industrial footprint in terrestrial ecosystems.
Initiatives to protect 30% of Earth by 2030 prompt evaluation of how to efficiently target shortcomings in the global protected area (PA) network. Focusing on amphibians, the most vulnerable vertebrate class, we illustrate the conservation value of microreserves, a term we employ here to refer to reserves of <10 km2. We report that the network continues to under-represent threatened amphibians and that, despite this clear shortcoming in land-based conservation, the creation of PAs protecting amphibians slowed after 2010.
The National Environment Service worked closely with family representatives of the Takitumu Conservation Area, to submit an assessment application that will gave the TCA official international recognition as an Other Effective area-based Conservation Measure (OECM). All documents relevant to the submission process will be stored here, including resources on the TCA, which are referred to in the assessment form.The TCA was launched as the Cook Islands' first OECM on International Biodiversity Day 2024 (22 May 2024)
Conservation can best be achieved when conservation values are part of the mainstream
of society, when they become part of everyones decisions including government, private
enterprise and the community as a whole. This was recognized by the more than 320
participants from Pacific island governments, Pacific and international organizations and
community groups when they met in Rarotonga, Cook Islands in July 2002 for the 7th
The SOE uses the 2011 report by Cook Islands to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to identify the country’s terrestrial protected areas. There are 14 terrestrial PAs, which total at least 1407.2 hectares (five PAs are uncalculated), or about six per cent of the Cook Islands’ total 240 km2 land mass.
The 2018 SOE is a new baseline for future reports and can help the Cook Islands with national regional and international reporting obligations including multi-lateral environmental agreements.Available onlineCall Number: 333.7209623 COO, [EL]ISBN/ISSN: 978-982-04-0666-7,978-982-04-0667-4Physical Description: 200 p.
Environment related legislation reviewAvailable onlineCall Number: [EL]Physical Description: 20 p. ; 29 cm
This publication has been developed as a contribution to Phase II of the Two-phase Strategy on Protected Areas of the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and prepared pursuant to various paragraphs of COP decision XIII/2 on protected areas, in particular paragraph 5(a-e), and paragraph 10 of decision XI/24.
This report has been prepared on behalf of the Environment Service, Cook Islands as part of an ongoing monitoring programme of reef health of the fringing reef of Rarotonga. The initial work was carried out in 2000 and this is the first subsequent sampling and report since that baseline study.
