Initial Assistance to enable the Cook Islands to fulfill its obligations under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPS). (NIP for Cook Islands)

The overall objective of the project is to create sustainable capacity within the Cook Islands to enable it to meet its obligations under the Stockholm Convention, including initial preparation of a POPs National Implementation Plan (NIP), and other broader issues of chemicals safety and management as articulated in Chapter 19 of Agenda 21. The National Implementation Plan will outline the action plans that the Cook Islands will be implementing to help it meet its obligations under the Convention tophase-out POPs sources and remediate POPs contaminated sites in the Cook Islands.Within the overall objective of the Stockholm POPs Convention which is to protect human health and the environment from POPs, the project will:i) Allow Cook Islands to meet its reporting and other obligations under the StockholmConvention on POPs;ii) Prepare the ground work for the implementation of the POPs Convention in Cook Islandsthrough the development of the NIP and its subsequent implementationiii) Strengthen national capacity to manage POPs and strengthen chemicals managementgenerally.