Mike Bowie has been appointed as an environmental specialist by the National Environment Service (NES).

NES states that this is a key move to support the agency’s growing portfolio of conservation and sustainability initiatives.

Bowie previously worked in the Cook Islands with the Ministry of Agriculture and built an extensive background in entomology, biodiversity assessments, water quality monitoring, and ecological research.

In a statement, NES said that his appointment represents a significant investment in strengthening their technical capacity, in line with its mandate to protect, conserve, and manage the environment of the Cook Islands.

NES anticipates that his expertise will directly contribute to more informed, evidence-based environmental decision-making and enable the agency to address current and emerging environmental challenges with greater confidence.

His work will cover four major work streams.

• In the area of Environmental Processes, he will design standardised procedures for collecting environmental data such as soil health, wetlands, foreshore conditions, climate change impacts, and water quality, and determine the appropriate tools and methodologies for monitoring these areas.
• He will also develop templates for environmental assessments and reporting, and help align data collection processes with existing programs.
• In Environmental Monitoring, he will assist in the review of the current Environmental Compliance Manual, which includes processes for complaints, investigations, breach notices, and stop work orders..
• In Baseline Data Collection and Evaluation, he will work with the EC staff to gather initial environmental data and draft frameworks for monitoring, evaluation, and reporting, helping NES to structure and streamline its internal procedures.

Capacity building will also form a critical part of his role where he is expected to deliver targeted training sessions for NES staff, particularly Pa Enua and Environmental Compliance (EC) officers, on topics such as process mapping, using assessment templates, and implementing monitoring tools.

He will also facilitate inter-agency workshops to strengthen cross-sectoral collaboration and improve shared understanding of environmental processes.

• NES