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TrustPower National Community Awards 2005

Harvey Jones, Secretary, Ashhurst Action Group.

Representatives from Ashhurst Action Group attended the TrustPower National Community Awards at Cambridge recently.  Along with the Mayor, we were representing Palmerston North City at the awards for the first time.

Twenty-one regional winners of the community awards each made a ten minute presentation of their work.  These were judged by their peer groups and TrustPower judges with a formal presentation that night.

 The projects and work accomplished and in progress across the country were extensive and wide ranging.  Some were social community based such as youth centres, Waitangi Day picnic, A & P show and a Fantasy Cave.  Others involved the organisation of sports or drama events.  Environmental projects for recycling, bush walks, wetlands and predator control of bush reserves joined groups such as ourselves, who do a bit of everything.

 We were humbled by the extent of some of the projects and fund raising achieved by these groups.  One involves the creation of an inland island sanctuary of 3,400 hectares of native bush at Maungatautari near Cambridge with 47 km of predator proof fencing and predator control.  Another, which was presented with a special judge’s award, was the Otipua Wetland Charitable Trust near Timaru.  In less than ten years, this group has recreated and developed a wetland with thousands of hours of hard work and native planting. This has already resulted in the return of a variety of bird life including spoonbills and blue ducks.

The Tauranga based Merivale Community Centre was judged runner-up in the national awards.  This group echoes the work of Palmerston North’s Highbury Whanau Centre in the way it provides for various youth programmes and a one stop shop for the needs of its local community.  It represents a wide range of ethnicity, ages, gender and employment status.

 The grand winners were the Friends of Dunstan Hospital, who have effectively raised funds to maintain their local hospital and extend the range of medical equipment available.  We suspect that their dedicated work and resulting community support has discouraged the local health board from the “rationalisation of services,” which has affected so many other communities across the country.  It is a shame that volunteers need to support a system supposedly already funded by taxes.

 The TrustPower National Community Awards provided us all with the opportunity to meet and share ideas and activities with each other.  We returned with a refreshed attitude to the work ahead, knowing that others have embarked upon even greater projects and have managed to succeed. 

Bio- what Day?

By Adie Leng and Viv McGlynn

May 22nd is the fifth United Nations day of “Biological Diversity” or biodiversity.

Students at Ashhurst School making a sign to show the biodiversity at the Ashhurst Domain decided, after they learnt that “our indigenous biodiversity” meant the variety of living things found in New Zealand, not to use the word biodiversity because they thought people might be put off by a label that could stop them enjoying all of our wonderful New Zealand birds, plants, fungi, fish, spiders and insects.

What is special about our plants and animals is that they have evolved in an island situation without having to contend with mammalian predators like cats, dogs, stoats, rats or possums.  As it is only recently then that the country has been more widely populated and cultivated, anything happening here is watched carefully because any loss of biodiversity is of great concern internationally. There is hope that clean-green New Zealanders will protect and value biodiversity more.

The theme for 2005 is Biodiversity: Life Insurance for our Changing World and although it may seem, especially here in the Manawatu, that our indigenous animal and plant life seem far removed from our daily lives, that in itself is of concern and we all need to take responsibility for improving this. We can find introduced plants and animals in other places throughout the world, our priority lies with preserving New Zealand’s natural heritage. (Note that endemic New Zealand plants and marine animals are often found as pests in other countries!)

So it is time to acknowledge the problem. In the last 50 years, human actions and increase of population have changed the diversity of life on the planet more than at any other time in history. Our activities have lifted many people out of poverty, but at the price of a loss of biodiversity. If we continue down this road, we will reduce biodiversity, with life-threatening consequences because variety really is the foundation for human well-being. The current pace and rhythm of our activities are harming ecosystems, consuming biological resources and putting at risk the well-being of future generations.

The unveiling of the sign at the Ashhurst Domain will be in early June to celebrate World Environment Day, another time to value what native New Zealand offers.

Guardian 19 May 2005