Extreme gardening
It was a nippy morning and, coming from Auckland I could feel the difference moving down the island, but the physical labour returning over 1000 beautiful native trees to Papatuanuku warmed our bodies and our hearts.
The prestige mountain Tauhora stood in the distance, reminding me of how great our whenua is and the need to protect it. Just beyond us as we worked the land suddenly turned a destructive brown, with diggers working ignorant to the impacts of their actions, and the bigger picture of how the forest conversion to dairy farming will be on the environment and greenhouse emissions contributing to climate change.
Conversations with the Landcorp officers and Police who turned up were handled well, and it was re-enforced that the action was targeting the Government on their agriculture policies. Soon after leaving the site, we were happy to hear that the trees will be donated to a local community group rather than being bulldozed over and destroyed.
We also had a visit from local beef and sheep farmers who supported the action, and it has motivated them to call a public meeting to further raise awareness about the issues in their own backyard. Today felt like a great success, no arrests, media were there to get the issue out to the public and every one walked away in good spirits.
- Tia Taurere
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Fantastic! Great to see Greenpeace drawing attention to yet another enormous elephant sitting in the room – agriculture.
As a nation, we can’t tackle climate change without taking a long hard look at how we use our land and making some tough decisions about agriculture.
I find it unbelievable that the government plans to give agriculture a free ride on its greenhouse emissions for so long. This is a huge subsidy to the agricultural sector. And here I was thinking that NZ hated subsidies and worshiped at the altar of the free market? Evidently only when it doesn’t damage a powerful lobby group ….
Either way, surely chopping down a forest to convert it to a dairy farm is the stupidest thing you could do with a bunch of trees!
Go greenpeace!
great effort – I would like to know which community groiup the trees were donated to – I am aware that there are some in local gardens, I am also aware that the land does not belong to LandCorp oops – maybe you were on the wrong block – I am also aware of the drought conditions in the area – oops a few hectares of precious greenfeed gone down the proverbial gurgler
I am also aware that I was invited to join the Greenpeace monthly subscription and was asked why not when informed I couldn’t afford it – just as well – why would I want to give some Taupo local a $40 Totara tree when I can’t afford to buy my own
Landcorp doesn’t own the land, but the site was specifically targeted because Landcorp leases this land and are playing a central role in the deforestation and conversion to dairy. Landcorp has two subsidiary companies, Landcorp Developments Ltd and Landcorp Pastoral Ltd, which are developing and leasing former forestry land in the central North Island. Landcorp has made a business decision to deforest and convert land to dairy. They make the decisions about the use of this land, and are driving the conversion from forestry to dairy pasture.
As a state-owned enterprise and New Zealand’s largest farmer, Landcorp should be halting the expansion of this climate polluting industry and leading the way in sustainable practices.
No announcements have yet been made about which community group the trees will be donated to.
I think that the cost of these trees is a small price to pay to bring attention to the fact that the Government is doing nothing to tackle the expansion of this climate-polluting industry. Greenpeace’s job is to bring attention to such matters, and there are always going to be costs involved in doing so – whether it’s the cost of printing newspapers, painting banners or planting trees.
THANKYOU! THANKYOU! THANKYOU! to all of those who worked to make this important statement on behalf of the rest of us who couldn’t be there. More will be needed to hold this Government and Landcorp to account. There is virtually no evidence that the Government is serious about reducing greenhouse emissions – instead it follows the ‘business as usual’ dictum, making GDP the bottom line.
Thank you – it is an important issue and you bring attention to it successfully.
There have been far too many dairy conversions recently and they are unsustainable from an environmental and therefore also from an economic perspective. The boom in dairy will pass and we will be left with a yet more damaged environment to contend with.
Thank you.
Fantastic effort in a highly symbolic way to draw attention to the hugely unsustainable removal of forest with massive indirect and direct environmental effects, with benefits to a few “Auckland businessmen”. Keep up the great work.
A great effort to draw more attention to the hypocrisy of the New Zealand Government which is claiming to be clean and green whilst acting in the completely opposite manner. I wonder what will happen to our tourism and agricultural exports when the rest of the world realizes the real state things in ‘clean, green’ New Zealand? If only the commercial and business world would realize the huge potential profit in New Zealand being TRULY clean, green, GE Free and organic.
Just wondering which community group the natives were donated to. We’re replanting a native block on our home farm and would love some Greenpeace throwaway totara and other natives … that’s Aotearoa natives not the Aussie natives planted in the demonstration planting …
Look forward to your call.
Wondering if greenpeace are pleased with the very minimal level of publicity this unfortunate stunk has raised, forget about the struggling farming community in which you have damaged precious winter feed, as local papers already state farmers are having to destroy their own stock due to severe drought conditions (Taupo Times), the worst since 1969, at least you can go back to Auckland and sleep at night
Hi Anna,
Have you considered why some farmers might be struggling? – That drought-prone land (a condition which will be worsened by increased climate change) is in fact unsuitable for dairy farming in the first place?
We’d be better off with trees!
jojo
Croydon – unfortunately Greenpeace has no say over who the trees are donated to. Landcorp stated that the owners of the land would donate the trees to a community group but haven’t yet announced which community group.
Oh Susannah … many thanks for the follow-up.
I’m guessing there would be more community groups wanting the natives than the couple of thousand eucalypts. Not to worry. We don’t want the Australian natives either
As a matter of interest are you planning on disposing of any Aotearoa natives in the South Island any time soon? A good tree planting protest on the Waitaki Plains would suit well (closer to our native planting area). Surely the 50+litres of water it takes to produce 1 litre of milk would be worthy of protest on the Waitaki Plains? Or the “contamination of our land and waterways” (ref: your YouTube piece). Protest at will.
Great idea Croydon – Go for it!
I’m not a Greenpeace activist. Just a tree planter looking for disposable natives.