The Cook Islands strengthened its technical capacity in climate data and geospatial tools by participating in the Regional Workshop on Climate Data Management and Geospatial Information Technology held in Apia, Samoa from 23 to 26 June 2025. Hosted by SPREP, the workshop focused on enhancing regional skills in using GIS and data management to support sustainable environmental management, climate adaptation, and planning.
Maria Maoate from the National Environment Service and Ngametua Mokoroa from Climate Change Cook Islands represented the Cook Islands at the workshop. Through a series of technical sessions, they built their skills in key digital platforms and reinforced collaboration between national agencies working across environment and climate sectors.
Over the course of the week, participants were introduced to essential digital tools including the SPREP Environment Data Portal, the QField mobile application for field data collection, and Google Earth Engine (GEE), which provides access to extensive satellite imagery and geospatial analysis capabilities. The Cook Islands team gained hands-on experience using GEE and QField to manage datasets and visualise environmental information through GIS and remote sensing tools. The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) platforms such as Gemini and ChatGPT was also explored to support tasks like summarisation, translation, coding, and data interpretation.
A practical fieldwork session at Vailima Botanical Gardens allowed participants to use QField to map plant species locations offline. The fieldwork was followed by a tree-planting initiative contributing to Samoa’s “3 million trees” campaign.
The workshop concluded with presentations of individual projects, showcasing participants’ application of the week’s learnings. Maria Maoate demonstrated her use of Google Earth Engine and GIS to produce spatial maps, highlighting how these tools can be effectively used to support local environmental monitoring and decision-making.
This workshop provided a valuable opportunity for the Cook Islands to build technical skills in spatial data collection, satellite imagery analysis, and digital environmental data management. These strengthened capacities will support NES and national partners in meeting reporting obligations and advancing sustainable management of the Cook Islands’ environment.
The workshop was co-organised by SPREP in collaboration with member countries and regional partners committed to building climate resilience and improving environmental data capabilities across the Pacific.
