Ruud Kleinpaste
Protecting our biodiversity
Climate change and a loss of biodiversity puts extra pressure on the resilience of our natural systems
new Zealand’s benign climate, fertile soils and spectacular geology are the perfect backdrop for a biodiversity hotspot and a place where you can successfully grow almost anything. And it all started a mere 4.16 billion weekends ago, when we said goodbye to Gondwanaland and started our long period of isolation, a journey that took us where we are today.
Forty years ago, Kiwis complained about being “tucked away at the bottom of the globe” in a place where the pace of life crawled to the speed of the introduced garden snail.
Mind you, by then we had already “conquered” all that endemic habitat with chainsaws and we managed to accidentally or deliberately introduce an enormous raft of exotic species, life forms we are still battling today.
Gardeners need no reminder of these pestiferous organisms; weeds are everywhere! There are hundreds in our gardens and there are 300-plus weed species of concern to conservation.
Right now, on average, one new plant species becomes established in the wild each month. The top target for Environment Minister Maggie Barry is the wilding conifer: there’s $16 million in the 2016 budget allocated to its control.
Our planet is run by biodiversity; not politicians, the economy, stock markets, oil companies, the media, government organisations or big business and certainly not by quality management outfits and OSH… work it out! It’s becoming frighteningly clear that our already fragile biodiversity is under sustained attack from (possible and actual) accidental incursions.
Here comes the scary summary paragraph – warning for sensitive souls: avert your eyes! Fruit fly, varroa, saltmarsh mosquito, Zika virus, guava moth, German wasp, Argentine ant, old man’s beard, foot and mouth, possum, tradescantia (wandering Willie), red deer, malaria, dengue, Ross River virus, paper wasps, blights, myriads of fungi, bacterial disorders and a serious range of marine organisms. That was, in no particular order, a small sample of buggers that the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), Ministry of Health and Department of Conservation (DOC) are focusing on, on our behalf.
There are a heap of factors that augment the threat of new incursions. “Economic growth at all cost” is just one of them, as it demands more trade, imports and tourism flow, and also people movement and immigration. About 5.6 million people arrive in New Zealand every year and commerce via the interweb is largely responsible for an increase of inbound mail parcels by 216 per cent since the year 2003.
And then there’s climate change and a continuing loss of biodiversity that puts extra pressure on the resilience of our natural systems.
The reasonably good news is that science and technology, predictions and profiling mechanisms are becoming smarter and smarter. Here’s an example: Dutch people tend to be interested in gardening and while on holiday in Europe grab cuttings and seeds from their holiday destination and simply take it home to propagate. That sort of behaviour raises a red biosecurity flag over here.
Entomologists (and mycologists, botanists and nursery folk) are natural collectors of specimens; so that should also raise a red flag! Now imagine arriving at New Zealand’s border as a Dutch entomologist; you wouldn’t stand a chance!
Trapping technology is getting better and better. New incursions of high-risk organisms are detected earlier and earlier. There will come a time that simply sampling the air inside a container will reveal the DNA or odours of unwanted organisms very quickly indeed. Smart technology, backed up by clever, shared information systems should make our biosecurity protection tighter and tighter every year from now.
But it’s not just MPI and the government that should be involved in protecting the biological heritage of our nation. Biosecurity is a topic that concerns us all. We are all in this together, whether you like it or not: it’s our future! Kaitiaki, the Maori word for the concept of guardianship for the sky, sea and land, comes to mind.
MPI is giving us, gardeners, iwi, industry, nursery trade, lifestyle-blockers, growers, farmers – all New Zealanders! – the opportunity to contribute to the conversation they call “Biosecurity 2025”. It’s a discussion document on proposals for a direction statement for biosecurity in New Zealand. You can find it here: mpi.govt.nz/biosecurity2025.
What would you suggest? Where would your priorities lie? How would you stop some of the gaps?
Personally I am charmed by the idea that we need 4.7 million biosecurity officers. That means we need 4.7 million nature-literate New Zealanders as our future assets and this requires cohort after cohort of nature-literate teachers in kindies, schools and tertiary institutions.
That way we’ll raise generations of people who will have the skills to be conversant with eco-system health, the basics of food production, animal health and human health.
These New Zealanders will be practical, great gardeners and restorers of our landscape. They will be members of restoration groups and understand the value of a circular economy that is generous and sharing.
But most of all these 4.7 million Kiwis will be alert enough to identify new, exotic organisms in their environment, which would be a lot more useful than chasing Pokémon! ✤
Submissions are due by 5pm on Friday September 9, 2016, and can be emailed directly to biosecurity2025@mpi.govt.nz or posted to Biosecurity 2025 Consultation, Ministry for Primary Industries, PO Box 2625, Wellington 6140.