New Zealand's biodiversity is in crisis and so are we

Thursday, 12 September 2019

OPINION: Every now and again mother nature comes along to remind us who's in charge. As she dumped more than 260 millimetres of rain over the Coromandel ranges in the early hours of Tuesday morning this week, houses were flooded, and small communities were cut off by slips.

By Tuesday afternoon residents, who said it was the worst flooding they'd seen in 40 years, were mopping up the mess left behind. We're told as our climate changes these types of severe weather events will become more common place.

They are visible and have a tangible effect on our daily lives. I guess this is a reason the call to address our changing climate is so strong. People feel and see extreme weather events and they recognise things like sea level rise. People like Port Waikato bach owners, Wayne and Robin Green, who this week were also forced to flee their holiday home as extreme coastal erosion claimed their seaside retreat.

We're told as our climate changes, severe weather events that that in the Coromandel earlier this week, will become more common place.

There is however another equally threatening risk on the horizon that we don't tend to hear so much about, yet according to a new DOC strategy out for consultation, the two seem inextricably linked. It's the loss of New Zealand's unique biodiversity which is also impacted by the threat we face from climate change.

**READ MORE:

People feel and see extreme weather events, and they recognise things like sea level rise, like those which have led to erosion in Port Waikato.

* Govt release new biodiversity strategy to try and save diminishing native New Zealand species

* New strategy to tackle 'crisis' state of New Zealand's biodiversity

More than 4000 native plants and animals, including the kererū, are at risk of extinction (FILE).

* Sheep and beef farmers aim to be carbon neutral by 2050**

New Zealand lays claim to the undesirable record of having more than 4000 of our species threatened or at risk. And as New Zealand's Conservation Week starts today and runs until next Sunday, the Department of Conservation is also currently calling for submissions on a new biodiversity strategy to restore and protect New Zealand's biodiversity through to 2070. Submissions close on September 22.

Public conservation efforts like tree plantings are what is needed to create change.

While the strategy promises to review just about every piece of policy, plan or legislation linked to biodiversity, there are still big challenges ahead. DOC itself points out, the current strategy, published in 2000 and expiring next year, has failed to prevent declines in endangered species, and widespread habitat loss over the last two decades.

So why is that? I'd suggest people don't connect with biodiversity in the same way they do issues like climate change. We don't notice less bugs flying around, or the loss of our wetlands and we certainly don't connect with how that will eventually impact our lives. I guess it may also seem hard to reconcile, when as a nation we have families in New Zealand without housing and food on the table.

Nature is however essential to our existence. Plants, animals, land, water, and we humans are all part of our living, working ecosystem. Put simply, if our biodiversity is in crisis, then our human health and livelihoods are at risk too. Unfortunately, by the time we recognise this, it may be too late.

As fires burn across the Amazon, considered the lungs of our planet, deforestation, industrial farming and pollution are said to be disrupting our natural ecosystems beyond repair. These are all issues created and managed by human hands. Nature is essential for human existence yet as we continue to accommodate ourselves, 75 percent of our land has been significantly altered to house our growing populations and things like over 85 per cent of our wetlands have been destroyed. The greatest risks to our biodiversity are identified in the DOC strategy as land use change, climate change, pollution, natural resource use, exploitation and invasive species.

Many of our indigenous plants and animals are found nowhere else in the world. We have species that have evolved in isolation for up to 80 million years. New Zealand was the last major land mass in the world (apart from Antarctica) to be settled by humans. This long period of separation from the rest of the world means that many of our indigenous species are not well equipped to defend themselves against new threats, including a changing climate and recent arrivals. We have introduced disease like Myrtle Rust and Kauri Dieback and little nasties like the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug that continually darkens our boarder doors and threatens our horticulture industry.

Of the 4000 species said to be at risk in New Zealand, 90 per cent of them are seabirds, 76 percent of them freshwater fish, 84 percent reptiles and 46 per cent plants. And while on one hand we continue to develop policies to manage our fresh water, strategies to address and manage our biodiversity loss and we find new ways to manage our biosecurity, with the other hand we continue to cause biodiversity loss and environmental degradation by the way we manage our growing populations and industries.

Even with all the work we have done over the last two decades, since the previous biodiversity strategy, the risk of extinction has worsened for many more of our species than for those it has improved. Scientists have now also said climate change will be the new driver of biodiversity loss. By 2050, they believe climate change could replace land-conversion as the main driver of extinction.

DOC's discussion document sets out how significant climate change will be to the loss of biodiversity in New Zealand but interestingly it says we're also presented with a huge opportunity. It says restoring biodiversity and people's connection to it will help our country to mitigate and adapt to climate change and its impacts. It talks about how restoring habitats can help manage climate change as these habitats remove and store carbon from the environment. And, if these habitats are not being used for development, they also cannot be used for industries that generate higher carbon emissions.

It also talks about conserving ecosystems, like wetlands and mangroves, which can also lessen the impact of extreme weather events like flooding and storm surges. And it says conserving or restoring biodiversity for greater resilience to climate change will also support New Zealand industries. This includes those species that underpin New Zealand agriculture and forestry, and the biodiversity and ecosystems that underpin commercial sea fisheries and aquaculture.

So, it would seem while we get loud and demand action on climate change, we should probably also be getting loud and demanding action on our biodiversity loss. The two should be considered together. We cannot choose to address one, without also addressing the other.

The DOC strategy says New Zealand is entering a new phase. A time where there is an increasing focus on our environment, a focus on ecological restoration and the restoration of our connection with nature. It says there is growing recognition that we all have a duty of care to our environment and that we are all stewards of this resource, our taonga.

And that is the truth in all of this. Our very existence relies on our ability to be caretakers of our environment. So, as we develop strategies, action plans and national policy statements to manage and address climate change, biodiversity loss or any other matter linked to our environment, we must also not lose sight of the fact that ultimately, we are here as mother nature's caretakers, we will never be her master.

* Nicola Martin is a Waikato Times columnist.