1Apr 9, 2013
Good Afternoon to the Hon. Dr Nick Smith, How do you place a price on lives that have been saved from tragedy Dr Smith? By taking away the “seat belts in the conservation estate vehicle“. The area and programme managers are the “seatbelts”. The steering wheel may be your mandate, your perception of the “best […]
2Mar 8, 2013
Recently, I got the chance to head down to the Denniston plateau – a piece of land that is currently being eyed up by coal-miners – to marvel at the ‘Persian carpet of biodiversity’ that the famed photographer Rod Morris talks so fondly about. I’ve been a macro-photographer for four years now, and as you […]
3Feb 27, 2013
Until a week ago, Solid Energy appeared to be the one of the prize jewels in the portfolio of state assets that the Government intended to sell. Now the company seems set to become a huge, slowly-dying albatross around taxpayer’s necks. Here at Forest & Bird we don’t like the idea of dying albatross, metaphoric […]
4Jan 17, 2012
A little known fact about the Denniston Plateau is that it’s one of the top places to see some of New Zealand’s bizarre native carnivorous plants growing wild. New Zealand has twelve native carnivorous plants: four types reside on this alpine sandstone plateau which is under threat from coal mining. For many people, carnivorous plants […]
5Dec 12, 2011
Although a National government has been returned, in a way Kiwis did “vote for nature” as our election campaign asked. The prospects for Nature in the next three years are not all quite as bleak as you might imagine. It is a very interesting Parliament and there are some reasons to hope that Forest & […]
6Sep 28, 2010
Guest blogger: Forest & Bird’s Conservation Advocate Quentin Duthie The Government is sharpening bulldozer blades and oil-rig drills. It’s prioritising digging and drilling for non-renewable resources over regulation and protection of the natural environment that our economy depends on. Undeterred by the embarrassing u-turn on Schedule 4, Minister Brownlee is charging ahead with efforts to facilitate […]
7May 5, 2009
Guest blogger: Vicki Connor, Communications Team Manager at the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority Our demand for energy – electricity for our homes and petrol and diesel for our cars keeps rising. Some of it is down to population growth, but a lot of it is simply because as individuals we are using and doing more […]