New Zealand has more species at risk of extinction than any other country on the planet. More than 95 percent of our waterways in developed areas are heavily polluted. Thirteen out of fourteen native habitat types are getting smaller at the hands of our own activity.
A population survey this year found 169 known kakī/black stilt living in the wild in the Mackenzie Basin, between Tekapo and Twizel.
A Hong Kong billionaire has dropped a controversial plan to build a sprawling lodge overlooking a scenic South Island lake.
A wilding pine infestation near Tekapo.
The Government has set aside $2 million to help fund wilding pine clearance operations in the Mackenzie District and Canterbury.
The funding, which was confirmed by Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage and Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor, would help tackle the invasive plant species.
For all the attention focused on the state of freshwater in New Zealand over the past few years, relatively little has been said about the associated health threats – we have been too distracted by our inability to swim in our favourite rivers and by the declining state of freshwater ecosystems.
The bankruptcy of the exploitive economy is abundantly clear. One measure of its ecological failure is our breaching of some of the nine planetary boundaries defined by Earth systems science. One measure of its economic and social failure is the UN’s Human Development Report.
The cost of the Government making concessions to agricultural lobbying groups amid the Covid-19 crisis will end up being paid for by our environment and our people, writes Māori Climate Commissioner Donna Awatere Huata
…………The first report to come out of the Act, Environment Aotearoa 2019, describes farming as the single largest polluter of both water and land. It highlights that what they call their “good management practices” pose the greatest risk for the survival of native species – 76 percent of which are in danger of extinction.
Nature must take centre stage when reimagining tourism in New Zealand writes Nicky Snoyink. Many of New Zealand’s evocative landscapes, like the Mackenzie Basin, are highly vulnerable to development and overuse. A Mackenzie dryland heritage area is vital to protecting what remains of those vast, golden landscapes New Zealanders know and love. The Mackenzie Basin needs tourism planning that prioritises and invests in nature protection and good community infrastructure.
Investing in wilding pine control through Covid-19 economic recovery has been put forward as a way of offering employment to those most affected by the tourism downturn.
EDS today released its Tourism and Landscape Protection report which is the first case study published as part of its broader Protected Landscapes Project. The report is co-authored by EDS Policy Director Raewyn Peart and EDS Solicitor Cordelia Woodhouse.
“Prior to Covid-19, tourism was New Zealand’s number one export earner. Tourists mainly came to see our natural landscapes. But the rapid growth of the industry came at considerable environmental and social cost,” said Raewyn Peart.