The latest updates from People, Water and Land programme

In this issue

The Regional Forum gets underway, Environment Aotearoa 2019 report is released by the Ministry for the Environment, and Professor Robert Costanza visits Southland.

Regional Forum underway with first workshop

This first workshop was held on 4 & 5 April at Te Rau Aroha Marae in Bluff. It focused on allowing the members to start to get to know one another; to start exploring their roles and responsibilities as well as the roles of Environment Southland and Te Ao Marama; to start developing a code of conduct and begin to explore the context of the work ahead, in particular change and decision making.
Check out a few of the highlights from the workshop in this short video, and read more online.

"Call to action" on Southland's environment

Environment Southland welcomes the Environment Aotearoa 2019 report released by the Ministry for the Environment and Stats NZ today as an opportunity to keep the need for improving the environment at the forefront of people's minds.

Environment Southland chief executive Rob Phillips said that while the report paints a less than ideal picture of New Zealand’s environment, it was a good “call to action” and reminder that the need to do more is urgent.

Click here to read more about the actions underway in Southland and to read the full report.

Public lecture from world-renowned scientist

Professor Robert Costanza, from the Australian National University, visited New Zealand last week and presented some of his work at a public lecture in Invercargill.

If you missed it you can check out the video of his talk on 'Treating our societal addiction to growth' here.

Professor Costanza is a world leader in ecological economics, where his research integrates the study of humans and the rest of nature. This work addresses research, policy and management issues, from small river catchments to the global system. You can read more about Professor Costanza and his work at www.robertcostanza.com.