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GREENING STRATEGY

A joint initiative between the Environment Network Manawatu and Palmerston North City Council.

Interim Greening Strategy - At last!

Document:Interim Greening Strategy2 Jan 05.doc(196.00 KB)

The Environment Network representatives see that this document will be an important asset to help the City consider environmental effects as the Long Term Council Community Plan (LTCCP) comes into play.

What it is:

Palmerston North City Council, in partnership with The Environment Network Manawatu, has initiated the development of a “Greening Strategy” for the Palmerston North Area.  As the name suggests, the strategy will focus on greening the City.  

The Greening Strategy is a non-regulatory initiative that seeks to co-ordinate the diverse range of existing activities which improve biodiversity, beautify the City, or enhance recreation opportunities.  The Strategy will enable the development of the bigger picture for greening the City.  The Greening Strategy will provide the framework and direction for both the community and the Council to work within – hopefully avoiding duplication of effort and ensuring that effort goes to priority areas and projects where the greatest environmental impact can be had. 

While biodiversity is seen as the main focus for the strategy, we realise that recreation and amenity objectives also contribute to greening the city and needs to be encompassed in the development of the strategy.

Background to the process

The Greening Strategy idea originally came from the concept of bringing the work of different environmental groups together through an overall framework and plan and enabling them to achieve their goals while adding to a bigger outcome. 

The need for a strategy for the City came from Environment Network Manawatu (an umbrella organisation for the City’s environmental groups).  It identified that a key issue for its membership was the lack of an overarching strategy to provide direction, co-ordination and support for the activities already happening that contribute to the greening of the City.

Last year several workshops initiated by Environment Network Manawatu were held, bringing together many groups and individuals in the Palmerston North Community who have an interest in the environment.  These workshops laid a foundation for the development of the Greening Strategy and highlighted the need for research to be undertaken into the amount and condition of natural green areas in the City.

Consequently the Council engaged an ecologist to prepare an Ecological Assessment of the Palmerston North area. Ecological areas were identified in the assessment using a methodology of aerial photograph analysis and field reconnaissance using roadside and riverside views and high vantage points.  Private land was not entered.

Letters were sent to all landowners of ecological areas advising them of the study and general findings.  The letter outlined the Ecological Assessment and invited landowners to be involved in future workshops on how the City should be greened and to indicate if they were interested in participating in any programmes that emerged from the strategy.

 A report was presented to the Palmerston North City Council in August and endorsement for the development of the Greening Strategy was received in September 2003. The report was put on hold in 2004 so it could be included in the Long Term Council Community Plan process. It was put on the agenda in February 2005 and passed as an interim strategy.

Process

Several workshops and meetings have been held with a range of stakeholders including community groups, private landowners of ecological areas and Iwi.

A workshop was held with representatives from Environment Network Manawatu, Iwi and Palmerston North City Council staff to develop this step of the draft strategy in March, 2003.  Now it is open for public comment.  It is anticipated that the Greening Strategy will be completed by the end of August 2003.

ECOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT - FINDINGS

The Palmerston North City Council commissioned Boffa Miskell in November 2001 to undertaken an ecological assessment and the main findings from this assessment are:

• A total of 80 ecological areas are identified – representing between 12-15% of the total area of the City.
•  The total area is heavily dominated by large areas in the northern Tararua Ranges (around 93% of all ecological areas) and without these areas, the total area of ecological areas would be less that 1% of the total City area.
• The majority of ecological areas are forest (44%) followed by scrub and shrubland (27%) and wetland (12%).
• The number and size of remaining ecological areas shows clearly the pattern and extent of habitat loss in the City.
• The parks and reserves network is of key importance to ecological restoration in the City.

The report also makes a range of recommendations in relation to Council’s land and management techniques.  These include:

• That a generic Ecological Management Plan for the City’s parks and reserves be developed.
• That the strategy be explicitly extended to…consider…maintenance of ecological values of key publicly owned [ecological areas] in the Ashhurst area.

The Ecological Assessment represents a point in time of the Council’s understanding of ecological issues – it is not intended to be a definitive assessment.  Rather, the Ecological Assessment is supported by a database and supplied by the community, from available research, and through specific investigations that fall out of the preparation of a greening strategy.

For further information, please contact: Adie leng

City Future Unit
Palmerston North City Council
Private Bag 11-034
Palmerston North
Phone: (06) 356 8199