E pā ana ki te whakaarotau i ngā take taiao māori
About the natural environment priority
Ki te kore te tangata e manaaki i tōna taiao, ka kore te tangata e whai oranga. / If people do not take care of the environment, we are not taking care of our own health and wellbeing.
Why this is a priority
The quality of our beaches, harbours, bush, streams and maunga Mountain, mount or peak. Also refers to volcanic cones. is dependent on how we treat them.
When we lose sight of the environment in our daily actions, we directly impact the quality of our natural world and degrade the basis of our economy, our health, wellbeing, and our cultural and spiritual identity.
Our natural environment is at risk
We rely on healthy ecosystems to:
trap and sequester carbon The net removal, by natural or artificial processes, of carbon from the atmosphere, and storage in carbon sinks - plants, oceans, soils.
retain water
prevent soil erosion
offer protection from extreme weather
provide a local source of food.
Auckland holds about 20 per cent of New Zealand’s threatened birds, reptiles and plants. Rapid urban growth, pests and diseases, pollution and ongoing loss of habitat have affected these species and their ability to move and adapt to climate change The long-term shift in global or regional climate patterns attributed directly or indirectly to human activity. GHG’s emitted into the atmosphere through human activity alter the composition of the global atmosphere, causing rising global temperatures and changing weather patterns in addition to natural climate variability..
Many existing biodiversity and biosecurity programmes, such as Auckland Council’s Natural Environment Targeted Rate (NETR), already help build the resilience of native species and ecosystems A community of plants, animals and other organisms that function together as a unit along with their environment. to climate change, by reducing threats to their survival and promoting landscape functionality through improved connectivity. But this is not enough.
These targeted programmes need to expand and develop, as our understanding of the likely impacts of climate change grows.
We need to capture carbon
Increasing the potential to capture carbon in terrestrial and marine environments is key to meeting our goal of reducing emissions The production and discharge of something e.g. the production and discharge of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere..
It is estimated that in 2016, carbon sequestration The net removal, by natural or artificial processes, of carbon from the atmosphere, and storage in carbon sinks - plants, oceans, soils. from Auckland’s forests reduced the region’s gross emissions by just over 10 per cent.
We need to protect existing carbon sinks A natural or artificial reservoir that accumulates and stores some carbon-containing chemical compound for an indefinite period. The main natural carbon sinks are plants, the ocean and soil., including mature forests and other terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems, coastal ecosystems, and healthy soils.
We need more trees
We also need to plant more trees and expand these carbon-capturing ecosystems Communities of plants, animals and other organisms that act as ‘carbon sinks’, removing and storing carbon from the atmosphere. to enhance carbon sequestration in the future.
Access to green space An area of undeveloped land, partly or completely covered with grass, trees or vegetation. is not equal across the region, as shown by tree canopy cover.
In the southern suburbs, tree cover dips as low as 8 per cent, but in the northern and western suburbs it increases to 30 per cent.
This affects air and water quality, access to shading, biodiversity The natural environment and encompasses native plants and animals (flora and fauna), ecology, natural heritage, ecological restoration and revegetation, landforms, geology., safety and mental health, resulting in real impacts on the quality and length of peoples’ lives.
