Forest & Bird
Home » Good CauseGood finds out what urgent projects Forest & Bird is working on and how you can get involved to give nature a voice
Formed in 1923, Forest & Bird is an independent not-for-profit organisation with about 40,000 members. Originally established to protect native forests and birds, its conservation activities now include all native species and wild places—on land and in our oceans, lakes and rivers.
Turn the tide
A study published in the New York Times strongly suggests that the present level of commercial fishing will cause a global collapse of marine ecosystems as early as 2050.
The good news is that this can be reversed once overfishing stops, and as consumers we can make that happen rapidly.
if enough people boycott a product, the corporations listen.
Forest & Bird’s Best Fish Guide will make it easier for you to make the best choice for our oceans when buying fish
BRITA water, better water
Bottled water generates lots of plastic waste. Drinking tap water is considered the best way to save us from this plastic pollution problem, and now there’s a simple way to make it taste great. By using a BRITA water filter system you can provide your family with an economical solution to great-tasting, healthy, clean water for only ten cents a litre, and with less waste.
One filter makes 150 litres of filtered water, which is very economical compared to 150 bottles of bottled water, as well as being better for the environment. No bottles means no litter.
These clever filters remove chlorine and other impurities that affect taste, odour and quality of drinking water, but leave in minerals and fluoride that are essential for wellbeing. So drinking eight glasses a day becomes a pleasure!
Greening NZ with Brita and Forest & Bird
BRITA is proud to announce that it has partnered with Forest & Bird to support the native tree planting programme throughout New Zealand.
BRITA shares Forest & Bird’s vision for the future: protecting all native species of flora and fauna, habitats and natural scenic values—on land and in our oceans, lakes and rivers. We’re all part of a wider ecological system and our quality of life depends on keeping that system healthy. This means clean air and water, living soils and a rich diversity of native plants and animals.
BRITA urges people to change their water drinking habits and to cut bottled water waste. It asks consumers to pledge to make a difference at www.mygreenbottle.co.nz, and in recognition will contribute to Forest & Bird tree planting programmes.
For more information about BRITA and where to purchase, please visit www.brita.co.nz or call 0800 4 BRITA
Proving how consumers can make a difference to environmentally damaging commercial practices, Cadbury swiftly removed palm oil from its products after consumer concerns about its contribution to deforestation caused a massive decline in sales. This clearly demonstrates that if enough people boycott a product, the corporations listen.
Forest & Bird’s Best Fish Guide will make it easier for you to make the best choice for our oceans when buying fish. Many fisheries are damaging the health of our oceans by overfishing, damaging marine habitats, and killing other species such as albatrosses and dolphins as ‘by-catch.’
The guide ranks fish—and fishing methods—according to their environmental impact, so you can choose to buy fish that are caught in fisheries that do the least harm. The guide is colour-coded and can be slipped into in your wallet or handbag.
To avert the future collapse of marine ecosystems, we urge you to use the Best Fish Guide and convince your friends, family and local restaurants and retailers to do the same. Together we can turn the tide.
Get your kids involved
Committed to creating a new generation of eco superheroes, The Kiwi Conservation Club (KCC) is a Forest & Bird club just for kids. It’s the only nationwide conservation group totally dedicated to inspiring and teaching children. Over the next 50 years, the world will enter a rate of species extinction that has not been experienced since the ice age, so it is more important than ever that our children and future adults are passionate about conservation.
The club has day trips in most local areas, national events and a fun website that everyone can use. On club trips, kids can explore and learn about New Zealand's wildlife, native forests, seashore and other special places. As a member of the KCC, your kids will also receive their very own Wild Things magazine delivered five times a year.
Over 17,000 children receive Wild Things, including around 1,000 schools. It features information about the natural world of New Zealand in lively stories, activities, cartoons, puzzles and competitions. Members’ contributions are welcomed. The magazine is also a great source of inspiration for school projects.
Preserve the high country
Stretching from Marlborough to Otago, the high country includes some of the most spectacular landscapes and unique ecosystems in New Zealand. This majestic wonderland is a safe haven for many rare native plants, birds and insects, as well as a global tourist attraction.
Much of the high country is public land that is leased for pastoral use. Under the government’s process of land reform called ‘tenure review’, freehold ownership of parts of the high country is being offered in return for other parts becoming conservation land. The restrictions of pastoral leases previously protected landscapes and ecosystems from development, but this protection is removed when land becomes freehold.
Together with Federated Mountain Clubs of NZ, Forest & Bird is advocating for the establishment of high country conservation and recreation parks so that our high country’s landscapes, native plants and animals can be protected for future generations and tourism opportunities.
If you want to leave a substantial legacy, support this campaign and help secure the creation of high country parks that will last forever.
The green room
Forests and climate change
Our very own tuatara could be one of the first creatures to face extinction due to climate change, because the sex of its offspring is dependant on the temperature at which its eggs are incubated. With rising temperatures, all tuatara are being born male. Our forests and other native vegetation play a vital role in helping combat climate change, acting as ‘carbon sinks’. Forests store carbon, offsetting the amount of carbon that is released into the atmosphere.
By looking after our forests and other native vegetation better through pest control, recognition of their contribution in government policy on climate change, and reforestation, we can help combat climate change. We also need to do more to make sure the sectors that create most greenhouse gas emissions take their fair share of responsibility. Agriculture produces nearly half of all New Zealand’s emissions, and must do more to reduce its impact on climate change.
Forest & Bird believes the government must set a target for New Zealand to reduce emissions by at least 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2020. If we don’t act now, up to one-third of the world’s land-based species could be extinct in 50 years.
Pest control
It’s been said many times: “We don’t know how lucky we are.” New Zealand is home to amazing plants and animals that are found nowhere else in the world. Our luck may run out, though, if we don’t do something about the threats posed by introduced pests such as possums, deer, stoats and rats. Already many species have become extinct, and many more remain under threat, including the kakapo, kokako and our national bird, the kiwi.
Damage by browsing deer and possums also wipes out native species such as rata and native mistletoe, and can ultimately lead to complete collapse of forests. Pest control is essential for healthy forests and for bringing unique native species back from the brink of extinction.
Trapping, bait stations, and hunting all play their part in pest control; however aerial application of 1080 is the most effective way to cover our large expanses of forests, especially as many of our forests are in rugged and inaccessible parts of New Zealand. If we don’t continue to use 1080, the most effective pest control that currently exists, there is a chance that New Zealand’s forests may fall silent within 20 years.
Brownlee needs an abacus
I’m no mathematician, but it’s clear to me that statements from Minister Gerry Brownlee about mining conservation land currently protected under Schedule Four of the Crown Minerals Act just don’t add up.
In an attempt to appeal to our competitive nature, he proclaimed at a mining conference that New Zealand had untapped mineral resources similar to Australia—this sounds like a potential Tui ad to me. Australia earned a massive $160 billion from mineral exports last year alone. New Zealand’s entire untapped mineral resources may be worth a total of $140 billion—but Australian or international corporations would reap the bulk of the profits, while paying New Zealand tiny royalties.
Mining is one of Australia’s largest industries; tourism is one of ours. It’s the golden goose that lays a $20 billion dollar egg every year. According to the Tourism Industry Association, our main tourist attractions are our untouched landscapes and breathtaking natural scenery—land protected under Schedule Four.
The mining corporation’s dilemma is that 70 percent of its untapped minerals are within conservation land. Most of the minerals in New Zealand are not precious metals but low-grade coal requiring damaging open cast mining. Brownlee has assured us they’ll not be “digging up the crowns conservation estate,” while simultaneously announcing that early next year, the government will hold public consultations to review protected land with mining potential.
I’m no mathematician, but while short-term profits may add up to billions for a privileged few, mining conservation land is clearly not within New Zealand’s long-term best interests.
The Green Room is an open online forum where you can read and add comments to articles such as these. Go to www.forestandbird.org.nz to have your say
Up the creek without a paddle
We’re right in the thick of summer, so it’s good to know we can enjoy the beautiful cooling waters of our many free-flowing rivers on these hot sunny days. Right?
Think again. Our rivers are being threatened by proposed hydro developments and farmland irrigation and pollution.
Our wild rivers provide a rich habitat for a variety of indigenous life, including fish and water birds, and provide many vital services for our own wellbeing, such as water supplies and recreation.
“Our freshwater rivers, lakes, streams and wetlands are among our most treasured and important wild places—and are some of the most threatened,” says Forest & Bird communications manager Helen Bain. “They are also home to some of our most unique native wildlife, from whio to whitebait, and are crucial for our own everyday survival.”
Unfortunately not all rivers—not even those in our national parks—are protected. Only 16 rivers in the country (less than ten percent) are protected through the mechanisms of a Water Conservation Order.
A 2004 report prepared for the Ministry of Economic Development identifies 65 hydro development “opportunities” likely to proceed in the next 20 years. Chances are your favourite river may be affected, with catchments proposed from Northland to Southland.
It’s not just the environment and wildlife that are affected.The proposals could rob us of the recreational activities we enjoy, from kayaking and fishing to swimming and rafting. And let’s not forget the tourism appeal of our rivers. We pride ourselves on our clean green image, and every year overseas tourists spend millions of dollars to experience adventure activities on wild rivers.
The proposed developments include the construction of large-scale dams (as high as 70 metres in the case of Whirinaki and Mohaka) and massive storage reservoirs that would flood huge areas (for example, the reservoir proposed for the Raukorore River would cover 7.4 square kilometres and would be 13 kilometres long). Add to the list the creation of power stations, canals, earthworks, access roads, power lines and pylons, as well as the diversion of water from one river to another, and you really start too see the full, destructive picture.
Once a river or lake is dammed, channelled, diverted or otherwise irrevocably changed through hydro development, it can never be recovered.
Rivers are also under threat from agriculture, in particular the expansion of industrial-scale dairy farming. “Dairy farming uses much more water and creates much more pollution than other types of farming,” says Helen.
Intensified dairy farming is transforming our landscapes and natural biodiversity into a monoculture of dairy farms. This is inherently unsustainable as a farming practice, leading to increased water pollution from effluent and fertiliser run-off, massive takes of water from rivers for irrigation, the removal of the few remaining native forest remnants, and the destruction of native tussocklands in naturally dry regions like the iconic Mackenzie Basin.
Help give nature a voice
Forest & Bird is one of New Zealand’s oldest and most important conservation organisations. It has played a crucial role in saving endangered species, unique ecosystems and parks nationwide. Forest & Bird is an independent non-profit organisation that relies on donations, memberships, bequests and volunteers to do its vital work on behalf of nature. Here is how you can help Forest & Bird give nature a voice.
1. Join Forest & Bird
Not only will you be supporting New Zealand’s wildlife, you will enjoy heaps of membership benefits: a quarterly magazine; free entry to some of Forest & Bird’s 37 reserves around the country and discounted entry to six lodges at Piha, Waiheke Island and other scenic locations.
Join up at Forest & Bird’s website: www.forestandbird.org.nz
2. Volunteer and be heard
There are many ways you can join in. Volunteers hit reserves and coastlines every weekend to take part in planting, pest control and restoration projects. Alternatively, you can email, phone or write to politicians and policymakers in support of urgent campaigns.
To find out more, visit the Get Involved section at www.forestandbird.org.nz
3. Fund the change
Good magazine will donate $9 for an annual subscription (or $18 for a two-year subscription) to Forest & Bird on your behalf. See page 31 for our subscription offer.
You can also donate directly to specific projects at www.forestandbird.org.nz
SIGN UP!
You can support Forest & Bird by subscribing to Good magazine before April 12, 2010. You’ll get:
- Six 100+page issues for just $44.90
- A magazine packed with inspiring people, world-changing ideas and down-to-earth advice for how you can make a difference and enjoy life more
- Free delivery to your door
- And $9 (or $16 for a 2-year subscription) goes to Forest & Bird
two easy ways to subscribe
- Call 0508 GOOD MAG (0508 466 3624)
- Subscribe online here (For non-New Zealand orders, please subscribe here.)
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