FAO Forestry country profiles - natural woody vegetation

Forest cover map

The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

Map source: Global Forest Resources Assessment 2000, base map: ESRI

The above map is an extract from the Global Forest Cover map produced as part of FRA 2000. Please refer to FRA Working Paper 19 for a background to the production of the map.

The Cook Islands are two widely separated island groups in the moist south-east tradewind belt: the northern Cooks six atolls (Manihiki, Nassau, Penrhyn (Tongareva), Pukapuka, Rakahanga and Suwarrow) in the south-central Pacific; and the southern Cooks, nine islands (Aitutaki, Atiu, Mangaia, Manuae, Ma'uke, Miti'aro, Palmerston, Rarotonga and Takutea) to the south-east, including both high volcanic and low atoll islands. The largest and highest island in the latter group is Rarotonga (64 km2, 652 m high). Natural vegetation ranges from typical coastal scrub and littoral forest to montane rain forest and cloud forest. Islands with makatea (raised limestone) substrates have unique vegetation assemblages. The following description of vegetation types is derived from Merlin (1985) and Mueller-Dombois and Fosberg (1998). Wilder (1931) represents an older account of the flora.