On 5 December, a fire damaged St Stephen’s Church in Ponsonby. The nave was heavily impacted, and the building needs extensive repair. The church is a Heritage New Zealand Category 2 listed building made of kauri. Church Minister Rev. Grant Ridout says, “Many people grieve the loss of the stunning...
A new report has found that the health of up to 800,000 New Zealanders could be at risk from nitrate in our drinking water. Nitrate is colourless and tasteless. It mainly comes from synthetic nitrogen fertiliser and urine from cows, working its way into rivers and groundwater. High levels of...
Caring for the Landscapes of Aotearoa New Zealand is the final synthesis report from EDS’s 18-month, in-depth investigation into landscape management, co-authored by EDS Policy Director Raewyn Peart, Solicitor Cordelia Woodhouse, Environmental Policy Researcher Dr Deidre Koolen-Bourke, Policy Researcher Shay Schlaepfer and Manaaki Whenua Kairangahau Māori Lara Taylor. Ms Peart...
Coromandel Watchdog has a petition which asks the government to place an immediate moratorium on accepting any applications for and any further processing or granting of any prospecting, exploration or mining permits on, in or under public conservation land in Aotearoa New Zealand, including stewardship land, administered by the Department...
The government will scrap the Resource Management Act and replace it with three news pieces of legislation. The three new Acts will be: Natural and Built Environments Act (NBA) to provide for land use and environmental regulation, Strategic Planning Act (SPA) to integrate with other legislation relevant to development, and...
The government is to introduce a range of measures to reduce the carbon footprint of the vehicle fleet. It intends to introduce legislation to establish a Clean Car Import Standard. The standard is proposed to begin in 2022, with a target in 2025 of 105 grams of CO2/km being...
What’s good in the draft climate plan: It’s great that the Commission has acknowledged that we need permanent native forests to draw in and lock away carbon. It’s also great they’ve acknowledged that we can’t plant our way out of climate catastrophe. Trees have a role to play, but they’re...
2021 is the 50th anniversary of World Wetlands Day which is held annually on 2 February. The theme this year is Wetlands and Water. Wetlands include freshwater swamps, bogs, gumlands, pākihi, fens, marshes and seepages. They are a threatened habitat in New Zealand. We have lost over 90% of our...
The Climate Change Commission has published their first draft advice on what Aotearoa New Zealand needs to do to meet the scale of the climate crisis, and meet our obligations as a signatory of the Paris Climate Agreement. Public consultation on the draft advice runs from February 1 until March...
The doors to staffed Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga properties around the country will again be open, free of charge, to the public this Waitangi Day. The objective of the 6 February open day is to promote the significance of these places that contribute to the story of early Māori...