Environmental hui set to draw good numbers
Members of environmental groups from across the region will converge on Te Puke at the weekend.
Saturday sees the annual Regional Environmental Network Hui being held in Te Puke Memorial Hall. The theme is Empowering People to Work for Nature.
Envirohub’s project co-ordinator Natalie Waddell says the environmental network is made up of different groups across the region.
“The hui is the chance for all these environmental groups to come together to network to learn and to share about what they are doing in the community,” she says. “It’s us providing a platform for them to present to each other and get together to share and collaborate.”
Natalie says good numbers are expected at the hui, especially bearing in mind the reputations of the two keynote speakers, Rob Mcgowan and Andrew Crow. “They are really well known and very well respected,” she says.
Rob, a renowned expert in rongoa Ma¯ori (traditional Ma¯ori medicine) is the author of Tiwaiwaka: Healing the Mauri of the Whenua and he will speak on the unity that is required to effectively reverse the ecological decline that threatens life.
Andrew is the author of Pathways of the Birds and he will give an illustrated talk on the original explorers of the Pacific.
“He is most well know for A Field Guide to the Edible Plants of New Zealand,” says Natalie. “Most environmentally friendly people have one of these books. He has an amazing body of work and he’s a real treasure. We are very excited to be able to host him.”
The speakers will be at 10am and 11am and after lunch there will be two workshops, one on sustainable funding for community organisations and one on idea for growing great teams. The day will finish with field trips to O¯ tanewainuku Forest or Te Pa Ika wetland at the western end of Maketu¯ Harbour.
“We also have a bunch of amazing stall holders as well,” says Natalie. One will include demonstrations of biodata sonification — a way of measuring and listening to microcurrent fluctuations across the surface of a plant’s leaf.
Examples of non-toxic way to control pests will be on display and Bay of Plenty Regional Council and Department of Conservation will have stalls.
People can register for the event at the eventbrite website.