Green Light for Community Conservation Fund

Community Conservation Fund Launch Speech
September 24, 2008

I want to acknowledge the following people who have been an important part of the project:
Steve Chadwick, Minister of Conservation
Sue Paterson, DOC General Manager of Marketing and Communications;
Tim Porteous, Biodiversity Manager, Greater Wellington;
Alan White, Nicola Holmes, Gavin Rodley, DOC staff involved in setting the fund up;
Celia Wade-Brown, Wellington City Council;
Robert Ashe and Quentin Duthie, Green parliamentary staff

Community Conservation as a Model for Restoration

We know that involving the community in conservation is a highly cost effective method that maximises public involvement and support for conservation initiatives. The projects set to be funded will further empower communities to return to a relationship of kaitiakitanga with their natural environment—restoring a local stream is one of the most practical steps we can take to act locally in response to massive problems like climate change and the loss of biodiversity. It’s one of the best ways we can exercise our responsibility creatively alongside others.

It’s also a great way for organisations like DOC and councils to get local buy-in for the projects they are trying to implement in highly contestable areas. Locals are more trustful of environmental interventions when everyone’s mucking in to help.

But I suspect I’m talking to an audience that’s well-versed in the power of community conservation efforts already.

Otari-Wilton is the site of one highly ambitious community restoration project along the banks of the Kaiwharawhara river. Similarly, at the Tapu Taranga Marae in Island Bay, Peter Russell has led countless local volunteers to get thousands of plants into the hard ground transforming a tangled mass of exotic weeds and scrub to the beginnings of a beautifully restored forest around the spring at Manawa Karioi.

This fund, which I know will prove it’s worth and expand in size considerably over time, is a reflection of the ground-breaking work of volunteers like these.

Maori Land Becomes Eligible for Funding

I am especially pleased that the fund can be used for land classed as Maori Reserve under the Te Ture Whenua Act. This means the land around public places like marae, papakainga, recreation and sports grounds, waterways and sources and other places of cultural or historical interest. Maori communities will be able to access the Fund for hapu and whanau conservation projects on these communal lands.

This is important as more and more iwi are having maori reservation land returned to them of high conservation and biodiversity value, but without the resources to restore that land. It is especially important for marae as well who are working on restoration of their creeks, streams and bush on their land in order to restore traditional food sources.

Focus on Dune Restoration

The $4 million secured for the Community Conservation Fund will also be available to groups working in areas like native dune restoration. Native dune lands are one of our most severely impacted ecosystems, on a par with native wetlands.

Dune land restoration using native plantings such as Pingao and Spinifex recreate dynamic dune systems that were once universal in New Zealand. Open grazing, fire, and coastal development led to the rapid and widespread destruction of dune ecosystems. Regrettably, exotic species, such as marram grasses, were used to stabilise our dunes and now predominate on New Zealand’s dunes.

There is strong evidence that native dune systems are well adapted to minimise the impact of sea level rise and increased storm events due to climate change. Natural dune ecosystems can accrete sand and build the profile of the beach faster than the predicted rise in sea levels made by the IPCC—a highly cost-effective way to mitigate against some of the worst consequences of climate change…and way prettier than the concrete seawalls we seem to be so fond of building at such great cost.

Community Partnerships with Local Governance

I have been travelling the country talking about our endangered tuna, the Longfin eel. And everywhere I go, I meet local councillors, council staff, hapu and community people working collaboratively to restore streams and wetlands for the benefit of our eels, our freshwater native fish and their habitat. Many, such as the Wairewa Rünanga who working to restore Lake Wairewa in Otautahi have a huge battle ahead but are fully committed to this work with others in the community. It is that kind of collaboration that the Greens are so pleased to support with this fund.
Finally, I want to thank all the DOC staff, those in the Ministers office, my own staff in the Greens office and those in the community, hapu, iwi, who do this work everyday, for their support in making this project come to life.