Dear Editor, CINews recently reported on Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) Secretary Temarama Anguna-Kamana, along with Director of NES (National Environment Service), Halatoa Fua, attending the 2025 BRS Conference in Stockholm, representing the Cook Islands.

Our attendees were disappointed that a list of dangerous pesticides was not banned by the Convention because of opposition from some countries. The list included paraquat, freely available in our country, and still in prominent use.
We don’t need an international body to ban dangerous chemicals. MOA and NES have the power. Unless they do so, and now, their trip to Sweden was a total waste of time and money.

(Name and address supplied)

Joint statement from MOA and NES:

The writer is correct that paraquat can be banned nationally rather than through the BRS Conference of the Parties (COP). The Pesticides Act 1987 under MOA allows for a registration process of pesticides, which NES and MOA are working with the BRS Secretariat for technical support on establishing this process for the Cook Islands. Registration of the pesticides, communication, preparing technical capacity, profiling of chemicals to be guided by scientific evidence of harm to human health and the environment, enforcement process, are all matters to consider as part of this work. More updates will be provided as this work progresses.

The Cook Islands is a developing country, and a Small Islands Developing State (SIDS), that receives capacity building, financial support, and technology transfer from the BRS COP. The Cook Islands has voting rights and officials are able to negotiate terms of the agreements that will benefit the Cook Islands and the special circumstances of SIDS'.