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The Cook Islands has a total land area of 240km2 within an exclusive economic zone of 2million km2, of this the Cook Islands has protected 3% of its terrestrial areas and protected less than 1% of its marine environment. However these figures are considered very conservative as there are mixed management plans, programmes and activities undertaken as part of the islands of the Cook Islands traditional and customary practices. These plans, programmes and activities are not declared and established under legal frameworks, which makes it difficult to assign indicators and measures, however they are contributing to the sustainable management of resources and ecosystems. The Cook Islands have also declared it entire exclusive economic zone a Whale Sanctuary

According to World data base on Protected Areas, as on 2010, while 22.8% of Niue’s terrestrial surface is protected. However although Niue has two marine protected areas, they are not recorded in the WDPA. Based on ecological gap análysis and other assessments the realistic nacional targets for terrestrial and marine areas for target 11 are ……% marine and …. % terrestrial by 2020.

A mid-term assessment of progress towards the implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020.

Article 11 of the Convention on Biological Diversity, on incentive measures, creates an obligation for Contracting Parties to, “as far as possible and as appropriate, adopt economically and socially sound measures that act as incentives for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity.” The Conference of the Parties at its sixth meeting, in 2001, adopted a programme of work on incentive measures, and the issue has been firmly on the agenda of the Conference of the Parties since then.