Pacific Islands Conservation Initiative (PICI)

After 2 years and some project delays we finally completed the Manihiki Waste Recycling Centre. This pilot project hopes to demonstrate the benefit of communities in our remote islands recycling their waste rather than burying it.
Thank you so much to all the people involved, project manager Ashley Cota, Mama Mayor, and all of the Manihiki community.

We’ve got to do more as a planet to care for our fisheries. Fish are the last wild stock protein source that are harvested in large commercial scales.

Daniel Pauly’s Three Big Moves to Save the World’s Threatened Fisheries | The Tyee If the UBC expert was global fisheries minister for a day, here’s what he’d do.

PICI have some exciting projects on the horizon. We’ve had funding approved to trial a waste recycling and removal project in Manihiki. We are part way into a campaign to create a reserve of Rarotonga’s cloud forest, and we are planning some exciting new eco-volunteer projects for 2019. So stay tuned!

Join us as we team up with infrastructure Cook Islands for a weekend of cleaning up our little island paradise! Don't forget to reserve your spot for the underwater clean up dive.

Ever wonder about the effects of feeding fish in our lagoons?

Natalie Prinz will be giving a public presentation on her research involving fish feeding in the Aitutaki lagoon.

Come out to the USP Cook Islands Campus in Takamoa, Wednesday at 7 pm to find out more!

Should we feed fish in our lagoons? Is this a good practice?

TO FIND OUT, COME ALONG TO A PUBLIC PRESENTATION!

MMR is hosting a public presentation by researcher Natalie Prinz at the USP Cook Islands Campus in Takamoa next Wednesday at 7pm.
Her presentation will focus on the topic of fish feeding and its impacts on Aitutaki Lagoon.
In many countries food provisioning is used to attract wild animals, particularly in marine tourism. Research on the impacts of fish feeding practices on reef fish is limited. Prinz will discuss her research project conducted in Aitutaki from October 2016 to March 2017 for her Masters Studies, part of which explores fish feeding practices in the lagoon.
Her research aimed to understand the effects of supplementary food, such as bread, on the community structure of small reef fishes, as well as on their feeding behaviour. In addition to contributing to scientific literature, Prinz aimed to provide information for future lagoon management and sustainable tourism in the Cook Islands.

Weighing in at a total of 12 Kgs, our rubbish collection mainly consisted of plastic items and cans.

To celebrate world environmental health day, we teamed up with Pacific Divers to do an underwater rubbish cleanup in the Avarua harbour. Great work team!

Snorkelling Avaavaroa Jan16 Snorkelling Avaavaroa passage, Rarotonga. A dangerous passage unless the conditions are perfect, where they were on this day.

"It's clear that it is human influence driving our modern climate into uncharted territory."

Warming set to breach 1C threshold - BBC News Global temperatures are set to rise more than 1C above pre-industrial levels in 2015, according to the UK's Met Office.

Please take the time to sign this petition to end purse seine fishing in Cook Islands waters.

The Parliament of the Cook Islands: We call on you to ban purse seine fishing in Cook Islands waters The large majority of Cook Islanders want a ban on purse seine fishing because of the impacts on tuna stocks in our waters. Environmentalists have asked The Ministry of Marine Resources to ban Fish Aggregation Devices (FADs) in association with purse seine fishing in the Cook Islands, because the le…