Sunday 30 July 2023

Forest & Bird has announced the winners of the organisation's top honours at its awards dinner last night. These include:

• Distinguished Life Member award | Kevin Hague (West Coast, Te Tai Poutini)
• Distinguished Life Member award | Ann and Basil Graeme (Tauranga)
• Old Blue award | Grant Vincent (Tairāwhiti, Gisborne)
• Old Blue award | Jocelyn Sanders (North Shore, Tāmaki Makaurau)
• Old Blue award | Kathy Gilbert (West Coast, Te Tai Poutini)
• Old Blue award | Annalily van der Broeke (Waitākere, Tāmaki Makaurau)
• Te Kaiārahi Rangatahi o te Taiao youth award | Ella Peoples (Ōtautahi, Christchurch)
• Kōtuku award | Raukūmara Pae Maunga (Te Moana a Toi-te-Huatahi, Eastern Bay of Plenty and Te Tairāwhiti, East Coast)

Kevin Hague honoured as Forest & Bird Distinguished Life Member

Forest & Bird has honoured its former chief executive Kevin Hague as a Distinguished Life Member for his exceptional contribution to conservation in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Kevin has been an important leader in New Zealand’s conservation movement, particularly as Forest & Bird’s chief executive from 2016 to 2022 and earlier as the Green Party’s conservation spokesperson.

Forest & Bird President Mark Hanger said Kevin’s managerial, advocacy and strategic skills have been invaluable to the conservation movement. Forest & Bird achieved important legal and political victories under Kevin’s leadership.

“He knew all the political connections,” Mark said, adding Kevin’s access to government decision makers was of great value to Forest & Bird.

“The work he did with the Greens and at other times of his life enabled him to be a great asset for Forest & Bird,” he said.

Kevin’s interest in nature started as a child in England and after his family moved to New Zealand when he was 13, he became fascinated by our unique animal and plant life.

Later his activism included protesting the 1981 Springbok tour, gay rights, as well as outdoor recreation and conservation issues. His activism and career choices, including prominent roles in the health sector, all stemmed from his belief that taking care of the environment that sustains us is intertwined with looking after each other.

As a Green MP between 2008 and 2016, Kevin was conservation spokesperson between November 2009 and December 2011 and from July 2015 to October 2016, when he resigned to take up the Forest & Bird role.

As Greens’ conservation spokesperson he was particularly proud of work he did to highlight cuts the government was making to Department of Conservation funding and the resulting impact on endangered species and the maintenance of tracks and huts.

“I think that work I did at that time probably created the platform for the major increase in investment that we saw when Eugenie Sage was the minister. That’s an issue where I feel I did raise public consciousness,” he said.

He said he could not resist the opportunity to lead Forest & Bird with its pivotal role in New Zealand conservation. He saw an opportunity to use his skills to strengthen the organisation’s advocacy role.

He was proud of a number of Forest & Bird achievements during his leadership, including the successful legal battle to stop the Ruataniwha dam, which would have drowned conservation land in central Hawkes Bay. Another was Forest & Bird’s campaign during the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic to strengthen investment in nature, resulting in the government’s $1.2 billion Jobs for Nature programme.

The work of Forest & Bird branches and staff was a source of pride and he said he considered the Distinguished Life Membership award as a collective achievement.

Kevin is again working in the health sector but he remains a proud Forest & Bird member and is gearing up to help campaign against plans to mine ilmenite at Barrytown Flats on the West Coast.

Distinguished Life Membership is Forest & Bird’s highest award and is given in recognition of exceptional long-term service in advancing conservation and the organisation’s objectives, especially at the national level.

Kevin received his Distinguished Life Member award at Forest & Bird’s conference in Wellington on Saturday (July 29), which celebrated the centenary of New Zealand’s largest independent conservation organisation.

Tauranga couple awarded Forest & Bird’s highest honour

Ann and Basil Graeme of Tauranga have been awarded Forest & Bird’s highest honour of Distinguished Life Membership for their service to conservation nationally and in the Bay of Plenty over almost five decades.

Their successful campaigns have included opposing planned destructive developments, such as the discharge of treated sewage into Tauranga Harbour in the 1970s, clearance of Kaimai Mamaku native forest for pine plantations, and development of Tauranga’s wetlands.

The Graemes have also been prominent in leading and taking part in pest control and restoration projects in the Bay of Plenty. They continue to keep track of developments that threaten nature, make submissions and maintain bait lines.

“I find their energy inspiring,” said Forest & Bird President Mark Hanger. “They’ve kept going for a long time and they’ve set incredibly high standards for themselves.”

“They’ve got guts and are not afraid to stand up in pretty hostile rooms and speak up for conservation.”

The Graemes’ advocacy has had a national as well as regional impact. Basil’s work on native forest clearance helped lead to the Tasman Accord in 1989 and 1991’s New Zealand Forest Accord, which ended clearance of native forest for plantation forestry.

Ann was the coordinator for the Kiwi Conservation Club (KCC) from 1992 and she edited the KCC magazine Wild Things for over 20 years until 2013. Working with illustrator Tim Galloway, she engaged the curiosity of children and nurtured a new generation of conservationists.

Her deep knowledge of Aotearoa’s natural world captivates adults too in the articles she regularly writes for Forest & Bird magazine.

Ann and Basil shared Forest & Bird’s Central North Island field officer role from 1988 into the late 1990s. During all of their conservation activism and volunteering, they have been a team.

In 2006 they initiated the successful Aongatete Forest Project in the Kaimai Mamaku Forest Park which carries out pest control and restoration work over 500ha.

Basil said he and Ann were tremendously grateful to receive the award but added they stood on the shoulders of many conservation experts and leaders, as well as dedicated Forest & Bird members.

Ann added they had always enjoyed what they did, even when it was hard and stressful. “Forest & Bird enabled us to do so many things we couldn’t have done otherwise and we’ve met a lot of lovely people and been to many special places,“ she said.

The Graemes aren’t the types to dwell on past successes but they do feel pleasure when they drive past an area of native forest they helped save.

“The forest is still standing and we contributed to saving it. That feels great,” Ann said.

Another important legacy is their three daughters Kate, Meg and Claire, who are all involved in conservation and environmental roles. Kate is Forest & Bird’s Deputy President.

Distinguished Life Membership is Forest & Bird’s highest award and is given in recognition of exceptional long-term service in advancing conservation and the organisation’s objectives, especially at the national level.

Ann and Basil were presented with their Distinguished Life Member award at Forest & Bird’s conference in Wellington on Saturday (July 29), which celebrated the centenary of New Zealand’s largest independent conservation organisation.

Forest & Bird honours Gisborne chair with Old Blue award

The chair of Forest & Bird’s Gisborne Tairāwhiti branch Grant Vincent has been honoured with the organisation’s prestigious Old Blue Award for his exceptional service to conservation and Forest & Bird over 48 years.

Grant has been a member of Forest & Bird since the mid-1970s, and after a period as Gisborne secretary, he has chaired the branch for at least 12 years. His work has included many submissions, lobbying the district council, advocacy and conservation projects.

“The backing and support of so many people over the years has kept me going because it has been a struggle at times,” Grant said. Gisborne Tairāwhiti Forest & Bird members, the organisation’s professional and legal staff and neighbouring branches have all provided crucial support.

“To know we have the backup of a strong organisation like Forest & Bird is very special.”

Longtime branch secretary, Barry Foster, said Grant had been a real champion for Forest & Bird and was well known in the region for his conservation work.

Grant’s personality had been a major contributor to his success, he said.

“He’s a very easy-going guy who gets on with a wide range of people. He’s got a lot of integrity, a sense of humour and a positive attitude.”

Land use, including forestry, has been a recurrent issue that Grant, along with branch members and Forest & Bird staff have campaigned on. The impact of insufficient rules and enforcement has been starkly evident in the devastation caused by recent floods in the region.

Grant has been Forest & Bird’s representative for eight years on the Te Tapuwae o Rongokako Marine Reserve Committee that provides advice to the Department of Conservation (DOC). He has also campaigned for better controls on vehicles and dogs disrupting the nesting of New Zealand dotterels on Gisborne beaches.

He instigated a branch weed and pest control programme at a DOC reserve, Gray’s Bush, near Gisborne in 2010. The project continues to protect 12ha of nationally rare kahikatea and pūriri forest.

Grant is also well known for writing about conservation issues, especially 1080 and pest control, in the local newspaper, The Gisborne Herald.

There are no immediate plans to retire. “I guess I’ll carry on agitating at the district council and elsewhere. It’s really special to belong to Forest & Bird and there’s so many people that keep me motivated.”

Grant was presented with his Old Blue at Forest & Bird’s centenary conference in Wellington on Saturday (July 29). The Old Blue is awarded by New Zealand’s largest independent conservation organisation to people who have made an outstanding contribution to Forest & Bird or the organisation’s conservation goals.

The award commemorates the last breeding female black robin which, thanks to work led by pioneering conservationist Don Merton, saved her species from extinction in the 1980s.

North Shore conservationist awarded Forest & Bird’s Old Blue

Jocelyn Sanders has been honoured with Forest & Bird’s prestigious Old Blue award for her outstanding service to conservation and Auckland’s North Shore branch, including 30 years as the branch secretary.

Former branch chair Claire Stevens described Jocelyn as “one of those incredibly energetic people who makes you wonder how they find the time for all the wonderful things they do for conservation”. Jocelyn served the longest-ever period as an office-holder in the branch, according to a branch history.

Jocelyn, who stood down as branch secretary this year, says the three decades have flown by.

“When I first became secretary, the then branch chairman called me 'young Jocelyn'. No one calls me that now,” she jokes.

Her role has extended far beyond taking meeting minutes and dealing with administration. She has organised trips, helped organise the children’s Kiwi Conservation Club when her children were young, and in her role as a teacher, ran the Enviroschools group at Birkenhead School.

She and her husband have been actively involved in branch projects, including planting at Motuora Island and Tuff Crater. When Jocelyn finds time, she patrols her local area, removing weeds such as moth plant and wild ginger.

She is proud to have worked with other branch members to achieve much for nature in Auckland over the last three decades.

“To have seen Tuff Crater go from nothing to what it is today is amazing,” she said of the project near the motorway on the northern side of the Harbour Bridge. The project began with the planting of the Millenium Forest in 2000 and has since grown with additional planting, as well as weed and pest control.

“What’s kept me going is working with a lot of passionate people.”

Jocelyn remains active with the branch and is also doing work for Restore Hibiscus & Bays conservation project, as well as being secretary of the local residents and ratepayers group.

With the Restore Hibiscus & Bays group, she is involved with managing an area of swamp maire in Bushglen Reserve in Brown’s Bay. Two decades earlier, Jocelyn was the main submitter for the Forest & Bird branch in advocating for the swamp maire to be protected from development.

Jocelyn was presented with her Old Blue at Forest & Bird’s centenary conference in Wellington on Saturday (July 29). The Old Blue is awarded by New Zealand’s largest independent conservation organisation to people who have made an outstanding contribution to Forest & Bird or the organisation’s conservation goals.

The award commemorates the last breeding female black robin which, thanks to work led by pioneering conservationist Don Merton, saved her species from extinction in the 1980s.

West Coaster receives leading Forest & Bird award

Forest and Bird has honoured Kathy Gilbert with its prestigious Old Blue award for exceptional service to conservation and to the organisation’s West Coast branch which she chaired for 15 years.

Kathy said the West Coast was an amazing place and she was proud to have worked with other branch members and Forest & Bird staff to protect its natural treasures.

“There is so much at stake here in the West Coast environment that is also important for all of Aotearoa New Zealand,” she said.

Kathy first became involved with Forest & Bird when she started a group which joined forces with Forest & Bird and the Department of Conservation to protect Shearer Swamp near the property where she and her partner live.

The legal battle took over nine years but led to stronger protections for wetlands on the West Coast. During that time Kathy realised she shared the objectives and philosophy of Forest & Bird and became involved in the branch.

“I believe this is a wonderful organisation with great strength and a clarity of focus,” she said.

The West Coast branch covers more than 500km from one end to the other and there has been no lack of controversial development issues for Kathy to keep on top of. These include mining on the Denniston Plateau, where Forest & Bird held a bioblitz in 2012 to highlight the unique ecology, and last year’s review of the Department of Conservation’s stewardship land.

Forest & Bird’s Regional Conservation Manager for Canterbury and the West Coast, Nicky Snoyink, said Kathy had done an amazing job as branch chair over the last 15 years.

“I think Kathy’s superpower is bringing people together and keeping them together. She’s got a very good handle on the environmental and political situation on the Coast,” Nicky said.

She added that Kathy had done an outstanding job in bringing all branch members together with their local knowledge to help Forest & Bird respond to the stewardship land review.

Kathy said she knew it was time to pass the reins of the chair to someone else and was looking forward to spending more time watching the sun set through the canopy of kahikatea trees on her property.

Kathy was presented with her Old Blue at Forest & Bird’s centenary conference in Wellington on Saturday (July 29). The Old Blue is awarded by New Zealand’s largest independent conservation organisation to people who have made an outstanding contribution to Forest & Bird or the organisation’s conservation goals.

The award commemorates the last breeding female black robin which, thanks to work led by pioneering conservationist Don Merton, saved her species from extinction in the 1980s.

West Auckland conservationist awarded Forest & Bird’s Old Blue

Annalily van den Broeke has been honoured with Forest & Bird’s prestigious Old Blue award for her exceptional contribution to protecting and enhancing nature in West Auckland.

The award to the chair of Forest & Bird’s Waitākere branch comes little over a decade after Annalily arrived from the Netherlands and “burst onto” the conservation landscape in West Auckland, founding branch chair John Staniland said.

After initially volunteering at the Ark in the Park restoration project, Annalily joined the Forest & Bird branch committee and was appointed chair in 2017. She has been prominent in many of the branch’s projects and leads its communications, while also taking a prominent role in the Auckland region’s forum of Forest & Bird branch chairs.

“Her standout strengths are her enthusiasm, capacity for hard work, and particularly her people skills. She has a real gift for communicating with people both face to face and online,” John Staniland said, describing her as a powerhouse.

Her successes include organising a buffer zone for predator trapping on private land surrounding Ark in the Park and playing a leading role in fundraising for and managing the 37ha Matuku Link area of wetland and bush, a project with close links to Forest & Bird.

“I’m particularly proud of Matuku Link because there are so many Forest & Bird members involved. It’s a very active project and it is next to our branch’s Matuku Reserve,” Annalily said.

Waitākere already has three Old Blue winners in John Staniland, John Sumich and Chris Bindon, who are still active in the branch. Annalily said they and other dedicated branch members have been an inspiration to her and she remains ambitious for the future.

“Out here in West Auckland we still have opportunities to connect more people with the environment, especially now so many tracks have been closed due to kauri dieback and the cyclones. I think there is a real pent-up demand for people to engage with nature and we want to turn those people into conservationists.”

Annalily described receiving the Old Blue as “super-humbling” but added the award was tinged with sadness because of the death this year of prominent branch member Robert Woolf, who first persuaded her to join the branch committee. “He would have been incredibly proud I had received the Old Blue.”

She was presented with the Old Blue at Forest & Bird’s centenary conference in Wellington on Saturday (July 29). The Old Blue is awarded by New Zealand’s largest independent conservation organisation to people who have made an outstanding contribution to Forest & Bird or the organisation’s conservation goals.

The award commemorates the last breeding female black robin which, thanks to work led by pioneering conservationist Don Merton, saved her species from extinction in the 1980s.

Christchurch student wins Forest & Bird youth award

Christchurch university student Ella Peoples has received Forest & Bird’s Te Kaiārahi Rangatahi o te Taiao youth award for her leading role in organising conservation projects and growing the Forest & Bird Youth network.

Ella said her involvement in conservation and Forest & Bird Youth was a powerful way of countering all the negative news about the environment and climate change.

“Forest & Bird Youth is so good because you can go outside and you can do something to help with the environment rather than just thinking it’s all terrible and there’s nothing I can do. It gives you the opportunity to take action,” Ella said.

National Co-Director of Forest & Bird Youth, Connor Wallace, said Ella had been staunch in her role as one of the leaders of the Christchurch Youth Hub. She led the organising of many successful events including tree planting on Banks Peninsula and the Christchurch Red Zone, riparian plantings and litter clean up events.

“Ella’s ability to coordinate and inspire others is one of the primary reasons for the continuing success of our Christchurch hub,” he said.

She had also been an important member of the youth national committee, setting up the Southern Hub for Otago and Southland and being the founding editor of the national newsletter.

“Over the past five years Ella has been one of Forest & Bird Youth’s most active, determined and capable leaders and our network would not be the same without her,” Connor said.

Ella hopes to start postgraduate work in marine conservation work next year. She has long been fascinated by whales and sea turtles, and as a child would hear stories from her surfing father of pods about Hector’s dolphins he encountered in waters near their Christchurch home.

“Working with endangered marine species is my dream, doing conservation and research.” She added she hopes eventually to have an influence on conservation policy, providing information to guide decision-making.

She believes the development of leadership skills is an important benefit of Forest & Bird Youth. “I think it’s boosted my confidence a lot and I realise I’m capable of more than I thought possible when I started with Forest & Bird.”

The Te Kaiārahi Rangatahi o te Taiao award recognises young people who are developing as outstanding conservation leaders. Ella was presented the award at the Forest & Bird conference in Wellington on Saturday (July 29), which celebrated the centenary of New Zealand’s largest independent conservation organisation.

Forest & Bird honours iwi-led Raukūmara restoration project

Forest & Bird has presented the Kōtuku Award to Raukūmara Pae Maunga for its ambitious project to control pest animals and plants and restore over 150,000ha of the Raukūmara Range in the east of the North Island.

Raukūmara Pae Maunga is a joint project of Te Whānau-ā-Apanui iwi of the Eastern Bay of Plenty and Ngāti Porou iwi of the East Coast in collaboration with the Department of Conservation.

The goal is to restore the health of wildlife and forest of the Raukūmara, which has been devastated by introduced animals including deer, goats, possums, stoats and rats.

The project is an iwi-led response to the crisis which has brought Te Raukūmara to the brink of ecological collapse.

Ora Barlow-Tukaki of Te Whānau-ā-Apanui said there was a passion among the people to understand what was happening to the ngahere (forest) so it could be healed.

“When you hear that ultimate truth, you have to act in a courageous way,” Ora said.

“Where we feel right now is really at the beginning of our time to heal the Raukūmara. We’re living in a fairly silent forest but there is a determination by us to do right by a forest that’s really been failed by the conservation system.”

The vision of the project is to restore the forest for future generations. “As it was in the days of our tīpuna, the mana and mauri of te Raukūmara restored to again thrive, flourish and nurture all who are connected to it. A ngahere that is protected for our mokopuna to come,” Raukūmara Pae Maunga says.

The impact of introduced predators and browsers, as well as destroying the health and regeneration of the forest, has worsened the effects of floods and damaged the health of rivers.

Raukūmara Pae Maunga’s operations are getting into full swing this year with ground predator control, deer and goat aerial culling, 1080 applications and monitoring work. One of the key aims of the project is to share skills and knowledge among iwi members and to create local jobs.

Forest & Bird Deputy President Kate Graeme said Te Raukūmara Pae Maunga had put enormous time and effort into communicating the problems with their hapū and communities and working to secure government funding.

“Te Raukūmara Pae Maunga has been exceptional in communicating the implications of introduced pests on the vulnerable native forest, problem solving and rallying support to control the introduced invasive species,” Kate said.

“All the people who fall within the cloak of Te Raukūmara Pae Maunga are environmental warriors and should be recognised and celebrated for their work that has begun to restore the mauri and mana of Te Raukūmara ngahere.”

The Kōtuku Award is presented to an individual or group outside Forest & Bird who has made an outstanding and profound contribution to environmental management or guardianship in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Representatives of Te Raukūmara Pae Maunga received the Kōtuku Award at Forest & Bird’s conference in Wellington on Saturday (July 29), which celebrated the centenary of New Zealand’s largest independent conservation organisation.

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