Why do we need a National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity (NPSIB)? The 2018 State of the Environment report identified we had over 4000 plants and animals in New Zealand at risk of extinction. And despite some doing better under intensive management, many are still quietly slipping away. Our approach needs to change. The Resource […]
I wouldn’t say this is necessarily my favourite bird photo but I’ll never forget the day I took it. I was on seabird sightseeing trip off Kaikoura, one of the best places in New Zealand to get close to the albatrosses, petrels and other seabirds usually inaccessible to landlubbers like me. The sky was brilliantly […]
Pūteketeke – Australasian Crested Grebe – Podiceps cristatus Native, Nationally vulnerable I was only two-years-old when my parents bought an old ‘smoko hut’ from the Geraldine Linen Flax Mill and transported it to Te Puna a Taka (Lake Clearwater) – part of the Ō Tū Wharekai wetland system in the Ashburton lakes/upper Rangitata River area, […]
A recent video clip of a stoat sussing out how to get onto the top of a picnic table where a kārearea (New Zealand falcon) was standing at Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park, sent shivers up my spine, no fear of the big bird on the stoat’s part. This was followed by a stoat darting around a lacebark […]
Mandy McMullin takes a walk through the Valley Road area of Mt Eden, Auckland, and laments the loss of the magnificent old trees being cut down and lost forever, rather than protected. I fell in love with this neighbourhood the moment we moved in. You know why? So many gorgeous trees. They were the first things […]
Blog updated 18 December with a Kauri Dieback Science FAQ written by leading kauri dieback experts Updated 22 January – The rāhui covers all tracks within the forest. A list of areas in the Waitakeres where you can still walk can be found here – Rahui Clarification. “Please stop visiting the Waitakere Ranges forests until it […]
Our Seabird Conservation Advocate, Karen Baird, was in Blenheim and Kaikoura running an international seabird identification course for BirdLife International. Better collection and sharing of information can help us reduce fishing bycatch to zero. It is essential to know what seabird species are being caught, where, and how many, to be able to take international […]
If it’s not clear why a Government announcement of ‘no new mines on conservation land’ could be almost immediately followed by a story about a ‘mine granted consent on conservation land’, read on. The simple answer is that the proposed Te Kuha opencast coal mine near Westport has just been granted resource consent from the […]
Last time I wrote about how plastic bags and microbeads affect the life in our oceans. Unfortunately there is another aspect of industrial pollution, one that is less visible. It has recently been revealed that the source of 85 % of human debris on shorelines around the world is hidden and unseen because it is […]