Efforts are underway to make the Cook Islands tourism industry more sustainable.
This comes as the country notches up record numbers of visitors, but as the technical director of the environmental organisation Te Ipukarea Society, Kelvin Passfield, said there is a desire to curb the impact they have on the natural environment.
Te Ipukarea, with the Tourism Industry Council and the Cook Islands Tourism Corporation, is setting up the Mana Tiaki Eco Certification project, which would highlight those tourism businesses adopting best practice.
Mr Passfield said they want to encourage businesses to do things in a better way for the environment.
"We asked them to look at their recycling, their septic systems, the sort of coastal protection, foreshore protection they might put in place to protect their buildings, all these sort of things, and we have worked out a scoring system, which, if they get above a certain number of points they get a Mana Tiaki Ecco-Certification tick," he said.
Muri Lagoon, off Rarotonga, is one of the Cook Islands' tourism hotspots Photo: RNZI / Sally Round
