Forest & Bird's highlights and wins 2024

This year, the entire Forest & Bird whānau – members, supporters, staff, branches, youth, and children – stepped up to fight for te taiao as the coalition government attempted to reverse four decades of vitally important environmental laws. 

Together, we raised our voices to protest the proposed degradation of our native forests, waterways, climate, and oceans. Thanks to your support, we used our strength in numbers and shared passion for nature to take action. With action comes hope, as you can see in the selected highlights below.

JANUARY 

TURNING THE TIDE

Driving out our coastal wildlife (Turning the tide infographic).

Forest & Bird calls on councils around the country to fix lax rules for vehicles on beaches after only one – Dunedin City – scored the top ranking for protecting coastal species. Our special investigation reveals that 73% of Aotearoa New Zealand’s councils have inadequate bylaws, monitoring, and compliance for vehicles on beaches. This leaves coastal species vulnerable and unprotected. Our summer campaign was prompted by ongoing concerns from Forest & Bird branches – and members of the public – around the motu. They are fed up watching vehicles driving on beaches with no regard for nesting shorebirds, resting marine mammals, or vulnerable native plants. Community groups use the investigation’s findings to push councils for change in their local areas.

BISHOP’S BOMBSHELL 

Resource Management Act Reform Minister Chris Bishop writes to Forest & Bird wishing us a Happy New Year and advises of the government’s plans to develop new fast-track consenting legislation. He also plans changes to the 2020 National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management – watering down its existing vital freshwater protections. The Society condemns the double whammy for nature. “The government is setting itself up to rush through any development without letting the public have their say and without keeping nature safe,” says Forest & Bird’s chief executive Nicola Toki. “New Zealanders should be alarmed that our incredible natural environment is being treated with such disdain at a time when we’re facing such significant loss.”

FEBRUARY 

NEW YOUTH HUBS 

Forest & Bird Youth members Amber Cayley and Samuel Salisbury step up as co-leaders and establish a Forest & Bird Youth Hub in Taranaki. In July, 17 young leaders from around the motu head to Taranaki for their annual hui to plant trees and learn about the wildlife of the stunning region. Later in the year, Sarah Sickorez establishes Hawke’s Bay Youth Hub. These two new hubs join existing ones in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin, along with two virtual national hubs, one for communications and the other for political campaigns. Forest & Bird Youth is proud to offer many different ways for young people aged 14–25 years the chance to connect with nature, learn new skills, and become conservation leaders of the future.

Forest & Bird Youth in Taranaki.

HAZARD PROTECTION 

Forest & Bird calls on the Ministers for the Environment and Climate Change to take action and pass a National Policy Statement on Natural Hazard Decision-Making. The policy would protect communities around the motu from flooding and other risks, such as landslips and earthquakes, by giving councils more power to stop developments in high-risk areas. The call comes a year after floods devastated communities in Auckland, Hawke’s Bay, and the East Coast. Forest & Bird was one of 102 submitters on the NPS last year, and it had been due to be implemented in early 2024. At the time of writing, the coalition government is yet to act.

MARCH 

TE KUHA SAVED (again) 

Stevenson Mining abandons an Environment Court appeal on its proposed Te Kuha coal mine on the West Coast. It is the latest in Forest & Bird’s long-running – and successful – legal battle to stop the mine going ahead on a pristine mountaintop near Westport. However, environmentalists stop short of celebrating as it is feared the company has discontinued the appeal because it has applied to the government for Te Kuha to be on its secret list of proposed fast-track projects. At the time of writing, the ancient forest, its kiwi, and rare native butterflies are still safe. The company did apply to be on the fast-track list, but the mine proposal did not make it onto the first list of 149 projects announced in October. It could still be added to future projects for consideration.

Te Kuha mine site. Credit: Neil Silverwood

WAR ON NATURE 

A sweeping Fast-track Approvals Bill is tabled in Parliament that if enacted would override decades of environmental protections set out in the Conservation Act, Reserves Act, Wildlife Act, Resource Management Act, and law governing the Exclusive Economic Zone. The coalition government gives stakeholders less than two weeks to provide feedback. Forest & Bird says the fast-track law will fundamentally weaken environment protections and is anti-democratic. “New Zealand already has the highest proportion of threatened species in the world, and this will put more on a fast track to extinction,” warns Forest & Bird chief executive Nicola Toki. Ministers can refer any developments, including aquaculture, dams, mining, roading, and housing, to an expert panel. Environmental groups will no longer have a say on new developments that trash the environment. Forest & Bird joins a coalition of New Zealand’s e-NGOs to draw up a plan to fight the proposals.

WOMEN IN CONSERVATION 

Forest & Bird partners with the National Library of New Zealand to host a celebration of women leaders in conservation past, present, and future. The International Women’s Day event is attended by high school and university students, and members of the public, who gather to hear a panel of inspiring leaders, including Nicola Toki, Amanda Black, Trish Kirkland-Smith, and Stephanie Rowe, discuss the challenges of working in conservation as a woman. The day also celebrates the contribution of bird illustrator Lily Daff and botanist Audrey Eagle, both of whom helped generations of New Zealanders to love their native birds and plants. The afternoon is spent at a series of educational workshops led by experts in their respective environmental fields. 

KERMADEC U-TURN 

The coalition government announces it is not going ahead with the creation of the globally important Kermadec Rangitāhua Ocean Sanctuary. Forest & Bird says it is a major blow to worldwide efforts to protect the ocean – and to the legacy of former National Prime Minister Sir John Key, who proposed the sanctuary in 2015. It would have covered an area twice the size of Aotearoa New Zealand’s land mass and 50 times the size of our largest national park and contributed to the global target of protecting 30% of the ocean by 2030.

CENTENNIAL DINNER 

Bringing an incredible year of centennial celebrations to a close, Their Excellencies, the Rt Hon Dame Cindy Kiro GNZM, QSO, Governor-General of New Zealand and Dr Richard Davies host a centennial dinner in honour of Forest & Bird. A who’s who of conservation gathers at Government House, Wellington, on 22 March, to celebrate the establishment of Forest & Bird in March 1923. Its visionary founder Captain Val Sanderson wanted the Society to be a united voice for nature and cherish the country’s unique birds and bush.

Forest & Bird's centennial dinner (L-R): Joe Harawira, Kate Graeme (Forest & Bird President), Nicola Toki (Forest & Bird CE), Their Excellencies, The Right Honourable Dame Cindy Kiro and Dr Richard Davies, Joan Leckie QSM and Jessica Lamb (Forest & Bird Youth Director). Credit Mark Coote

APRIL 

SUPREME COURT WIN 

In another long-running Forest & Bird legal case, the Supreme Court upholds a crucial point of environmental law in a case involving New Zealand Transport Authority’s proposed East–West Link motorway in Auckland. Work on the new four-lane highway, which would have destroyed significant coastal habitat for wading birds as well as a unique lava shrubland, is paused as a result of the ruling. The project is not on the first 149 fast-track projects announced in October. 

Aerial of Anns Creek and Southdown, Auckland. Credit Waka Kotahi.

STOPPING SAND MINING 

In another win for Forest & Bird’s legal team, again supported by generous donors, the Environment Court declines consents for continued offshore sand mining at Pākiri Beach, Northland. The company involved, McCallum Brothers, immediately appeals. In October, it is revealed the same company is planning a new 35-year sand-mining operation at Bream Bay. This project makes it onto the list of 149 fast-tracked projects, and, if approved, destructive sand mining will expand north from Pākiri, potentially threatening fragile coastal habitats at Langs Beach, Waipu Cove, and Ruakākā.

MAY 

HEAR OUR VOICES 

A huge outpouring of anger against the Fast-track Approvals Bill sees 13,489 people make a submission through our website. Forest & Bird organises webinars and a public meeting to help branches and supporters make a submission, and many do so. The Society’s legal and advocacy experts write a detailed submission, and Forest & Bird is one of the first organisations called to give oral evidence to Parliament’s Environment Committee. “There are just too many problems with this piece of legislation,” says Forest & Bird chief executive Nicola Toki. “It’s ill-conceived, rushed, tramples over existing environmental protections, and will rubber stamp controversial and highly damaging projects.”

CONSERVATION BUDGET 

In Budget 2024, the government raids the Department of Conservation to pay for its wider assault on nature. Forest & Bird warns that planned large cuts to climate change, environmental, and conservation programmes will make the country much less resilient to climate change impacts, and leave more New Zealanders at risk from flooding. It will also do nothing to protect the more than 4000 native species in real trouble. “Along with cutting the Department of Conservation’s budget by $45m, the government has also taken a torch to initiatives designed to better protect nature, including Jobs for Nature, the establishment of the Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary, and a programme designed to clean up contaminated mine sites on public conservation land,” says Richard Capie, Forest & Bird’s group manager for advocacy and campaigns. 

JUNE 

MARCH FOR NATURE 

More than 20,000 people take part in the historic March for Nature on 8 June in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. They come by the busload to protest the coalition government’s war on nature. Forest & Bird chief executive Nicola Toki addresses the march, saying: “Today, people from all walks of life across Aotearoa New Zealand have come together and collectively given nature a voice. They have made it clear that they will not tolerate precious and endangered wildlife being condemned to extinction. They won’t watch native forests be destroyed or let rivers, lakes, and oceans be polluted. They will fight for what we share as New Zealanders because it’s in our nature. They will fight for what we love. We have fought for te taiao nature before and won.” The march is organised by Forest & Bird, Greenpeace, Communities Against Fast Track, Coromandel Watchdog, WWF-New Zealand, and Kiwis Against Seabed Mining.

Our CE Nicola Toki leading the March for Nature protest on 8 June 2024

FIRST FEMALE PRESIDENT 

Kate Graeme becomes Forest & Bird’s 20th president and the first woman to hold the role. The Society has been a central part of her life since she was a child. Her parents Basil and Ann Graeme are conservation activists from the Bay of Plenty with a long association with Forest & Bird. Kate recalls how Ann and Basil, along with the wider community, fought for the forests after the government announced plans to log 23,000ha of the Kaimai Mamaku. In a powerful example of “people power”, the government relented, and the land became a conservation park. In June, Kate marches for nature alongside her parents.

JULY 

VOLUNTEER MAGIC 

One of Forest & Bird’s conservation goals is to help build people’s connection with nature by encouraging New Zealanders to participate in community-based habitat restoration projects. Our Annual Report, published this month, shows 14,000 volunteers gave nearly 45,000 hours of mahi to nature during 2023. The Society manages 140 active conservation projects throughout the country, including seven major nationally significant nature sanctuaries and restoration projects. Our branches look after 1482ha of Forest & Bird-owned nature reserves in 39 locations across the country. Our volunteers helped plant 38,000 trees in 2023 and carried out animal pest control on nearly 6500ha of land and plant pest control on 5000ha of land. 

NEW WĒTĀ SPECIES 

A stellar find during a Forest & Bird bioblitz on the West Coast turns out to be a new genus of tokoriro cave wētā. Steve Trewick, Massey University professor of evolutionary ecology, and his team describe two new genera and three new species of wētā. One of them is Occultastella morgana, which Steve spotted during a bioblitz on the Denniston Plateau, near Westport, back in 2012. It was subsequently sighted in other parts of the north-west of the South Island too. Forest & Bird organised the bioblitz, an intensive biodiversity survey, which was supported by scientific experts and volunteers. It was part of our campaign to stop coal mining destroying the area and its huge diversity of plants and animals that have evolved to live on the Denniston Plateau. A decade later, the Society is still fighting to save the Denniston – currently under threat from the government’s new fast-track legislation.

One of three new species of wētā, Occultastella morgana. Credit D Hegg.

AUGUST 

GOVERNMENT U-TURN 

The government listens to the tens of thousands of New Zealanders who raised significant concerns about its proposed Fast-track Approvals Bill. In a major backdown, it announces that three Ministers will no longer have the final say on which fast-track developments are approved. Potential projects will be referred to an expert panel by the Minister for Infrastructure Chris Bishop alone, and he will be required to consult the Minister for the Environment and other relevant portfolio Ministers as part of the referral process. Final decisions on a project will not sit with three Ministers but with the expert panel. These will now include expertise in environmental matters, the government says, and an iwi authority representative – but only when required by Treaty settlements. Applicants have to include information on previous decisions by approving authorities, including court decisions, in their applications to the referring Minister. Forest & Bird welcomes the changes but says the Bill remains fundamentally flawed as it still prioritises economic development over environmental protection. 

Forest & Bird magazine !00th issue

NATURE’S STORYTELLERS 

Forest & Bird magazine turns 100, making it one of New Zealand’s oldest continuously published magazines. For our birthday cover, we take inspiration from Captain Val Sanderson, the magazine’s first editor, who chose a simple kiwi illustration on the front of his inaugural issue, published in winter 1924. We select a rowi, the rarest of New Zealand’s kiwi species, to be our cover shot. The only wild population is found at Ōkarito kiwi sanctuary, near Franz Josef, and all rowi are under active management by the Department of Conservation. Save the Kiwi estimates the current population to be just 500 birds. 

SEPTEMBER 

SUSTAINABLE FISHING 

School of tarakihi taken in Wellington region. Credit Sarah Milicich, CC BY-SA-NC 4.0.

After five years of legal proceedings, the Supreme Court upholds Forest & Bird’s argument that overfished tarakihi stocks need to be rebuilt within a period that is based on the stock’s biology and environmental conditions. Forest & Bird challenged a decision by the Minister of Fisheries in 2019 to double the period for rebuilding tarakihi stocks from 10 to 20 years. At the time, tarakihi stocks were hovering at around 17% of their natural abundance. The Minister conceded his decision contained an error, but this was challenged by the seafood industry, which argued the Minister was entitled to take social, cultural, and economic considerations into account. The case went through the courts, with Forest & Bird winning each time – until it reached the Supreme Court. “The decision confirms that – when a fishery is overfished, as it has been in this case – the length of time to rebuild depleted fish stocks must be based on science, not driven by economic interests,” says environmental lawyer Sally Gepp KC, who represented Forest & Bird. It is an important point of law that must now be applied to other fishing stocks.   

BIRD OF THE YEAR 

Hoiho yellow-eyed penguin wins Te Manu Rongonui o te Tau Bird of the Year 2024, securing a decisive victory with 6328 votes. It wears the coveted crown atop its golden head for the second time, having previously won in 2019. It wasn’t just flipper-power and a sharp beak that aided the hoiho in its quest for the title of Bird of the Year. A tenacious campaign propelled the penguin into first place, spearheaded by Ōtepoti Dunedin locals, led by Tūhura Otago Museum. It assembled a “dream team” of supporters, including local wildlife and environmental organisations, the Highlanders rugby team, and Emerson’s Brewery, who crafted a special pale ale in honour of the “people’s penguin”.

OCTOBER 

FAST TRACK LIST REVEALED 

A list of 149 projects for automatic fast tracking through Schedule 2 of the Fast-track Approvals Bill is released, months after the government’s public consultation closed. Included are several developments Forest & Bird has spent years successfully opposing in court, essentially “zombie projects”. This includes the Ruataniwha dam in Hawke’s Bay and Trans-Tasman Resources’ proposal for seabed mining off the Taranaki coast. Forest & Bird dubs it a “dark day for New Zealand democracy” because the select committee tasked with assessing the law didn’t get to see the 149 proposed projects attached to the Bill. Forest & Bird sends an open letter to the Environment Committee asking that it not report back to Parliament until it has had the opportunity to receive and consider public submissions on the proposed 149 projects. This doesn’t happen, and, at the time of writing, the Fast-track Approvals Bill is due to become law by the end of 2024.

FRESHWATER FIRST 

Following success in the Environment Court and High Court, Forest & Bird is able to defend a further appeal by Southland Regional Council challenging the interpretation of section 70 of the RMA, which says that regional plans must not permit discharges with significant adverse effects on aquatic life. After intensive lobbying by corporate farming groups and the council, the government intends to change the law. 

NATURE’S GIFTS 

It is crucial that nature-based solutions be prioritised in future climate adaptation legislation, says Forest & Bird, when Parliament’s Inquiry into Climate Adaptation report is released. The report backs the Society’s submission that nature-based solutions can help Aotearoa New Zealand adapt to the challenges posed by climate change in multiple ways. The Society says the government also needs to recognise the value of existing ecosystems, such as native forests, wetlands, river corridors, sand dunes, and tussocklands, in providing natural hazard mitigation. For example, wetlands can decrease flooding peaks, and healthy indigenous forest will limit erosion. These nature-based solutions have co-benefits, such as improving biodiversity and reducing emissions. The Society says the inquiry’s findings offer a positive opportunity to work with te taiao nature for the benefit of people and the environment.

NOVEMBER 

FORCE OF NATURE 

Forest & Bird’s president Kate Graeme and chief executive Nicola Toki host a book launch for Force of Nature Te Aumangea o te Ao Tūroa at Zealandia, attended by the writers David Young and Naomi Arnold and more than 100 guests, including the publisher Robbie Burton, of Potton & Burton. It was a chance to celebrate the tens of thousands of volunteers and staff who have contributed their mahi to nature protection over the past 100 years and their incredible achievements in helping secure 30% of the country’s land area into the public conservation estate for the benefit of everyone living in Aotearoa New Zealand. 

Force of Nature Te Aumangea o te ao Tūroa: A Conservation History of Forest & Bird (1923–2023)

HAURAKI GULF PETITION 

Nearly 6000 people sign Forest & Bird’s petition protesting plans to allow commercial fishing in some of Tīkapa Moana the Hauraki Gulf’s newly established marine protected areas. Earlier in the year, the government announces the Hauraki Gulf Tīkapa Moana Marine Protection Bill will be passed into law, establishing 19 new marine protected areas. But, in October, the Minister of Conservation introduces a controversial amendment that would allow “ring-net” fishing in two of 12 designated “High Protection Areas”. There is an outcry about this change – not least because allowing commercial fishing in a marine protected area could set a precedent in other marine reserves throughout the country. 

DECEMBER 

KCC 

Forest & Bird’s Hakuturi Toa Kiwi Conservation Club has been connecting Kiwi kids to local wildlife and wild places for more than 35 years. Through family and school memberships, KCC reaches 10,000 children throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. Membership costs $24 a year and includes the popular quarterly Wild Things magazine full of stories and nature-based activities for children up to 13 years. Members can also take part in KCC adventures with their family, organised by local volunteer coordinators. They arrange outings for members to explore their beaches, forests, and everywhere in between. 

GIVE A TRAP 

Forest & Bird’s Give a Trap website was the vision of late adventurer-tramper Penny Willocks, of Canterbury, who wanted to make it easier for people to contribute to the Predator Free New Zealand 2050 goal. She left a generous bequest that her friends and whānau used to establish the Give a Trap website, which was then gifted to Forest & Bird to manage. People can donate a trap to any of the community groups listed on the site, and the trap will be sent directly to their chosen project.