Formats and related files:
This submission is made to Central Hawke’s Bay (CHB) District Council on behalf of the national office and the local branch of Forest & Bird.
Before people arrived in Aotearoa New Zealand, 80% of the land was covered in dense forest . Now only 24% remains. Nature has been pushed to breaking point by human activity, climate change, introduced pests, pollution, and deforestation.
But it doesn’t have to be like this. It’s not long ago that nature thrived in Aotearoa New Zealand. We need to bring back nature. And we don’t have to look back far to know what that could be like.
CHBDC has made many commitments to the community on protecting and restoring nature, on minimising our contribution to and effects of climate change, and enhancing community wellbeing. It has a strong mandate to follow through with those commitments in this long term planning round.