Aotearoa’s biodiversity and ecosystems are in crisis. Action to restore and protect nature needs a comprehensive
strategy to ensure our contributions help bring biodiversity back from the brink. To help achieve this the Department of
Conservation (DOC) is hosting a ‘national conversation on nature’ to develop a new Biodiversity Strategy for Aotearoa,
NZ .
‘Te Koiroa o te Koiora’, a Discussion Document for the New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy (NZBS) was launched earlier this week. It sets out a series of proposals for inclusion in a new Biodiversity Strategy
for the next 20 years, through ideas gleaned from recent stakeholder and community engagement led by DOC across New
Zealand.
Scoop’s Involvement as an Engagement Partner
To ensure as many New Zealanders as possible can take part, Scoop has teamed up with DOC and Public Engagement Projects
(PEP) to run an online discussion. Back from the brink? Protecting and restoring our biodiversity runs on Scoop HiveMind from 5 August to 5 September.
Scoop is honoured to be working closely with DOC to ensure that as wide a range of New Zealanders engage with this
vitally important discussion as possible.
This engagement gives us all an unprecedented opportunity to collectively decide as a community how we can build a
shared vision and strategy for achieving a thriving future for Aotearoa’s biodiversity.
What is Scoop’s HiveMind
HiveMind makes it possible for everyone to participate in a respectful, focused and participatory discussion using a
platform designed to enable safe, coherent mass participation and move a discussion away from polarity, towards
productive solutions.
HiveMind uses a form of advanced survey in which participants shape the evolution and see results in real-time.
The data will be used to produce a report for DOC and inform the overall consultation process, as well as being
available as an open anonymised dataset for other uses.
Have Your Say Now
Biodiversity Journalism
In support of this HiveMind, over the next month, Scoop will be publishing and curating extensive information on
Biodiversity in Aotearoa.
This will include a series of Scoop Foundation-funded in-depth public interest journalism on various aspects of the
future of biodiversity in Aotearoa.
Scoop also has a Biodiversity Full Coverage Page here which includes Scoop Co-editor Ian llewellyn’s excellent summary of the key points and tensions raised by the NZBS here and a discussion of the policy work needed here.
You can also submit directly and get information about workshops, hui and events across New Zealand on the DOC website.