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Environmental Issues

Deforestation, pollution, overpopulation, hazardous waste, and oil spills are huge environmental concerns. Learn how the Department of Conservation, NGOs, volunteers and reserves like Kapiti Island are helping to save the planet. SCIS no. 1807263

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Photographs of trees and native plants, 2013

Photographs of trees and native plants, 2013

Comprises views of native trees and plantlife taken by Dylan Owen in November 2013. The photographs show images of the bush near Wainuiomata, Foxton, and Silverstream, and include images of cabbage...

World Environment Day

Take part in World Environment Day 2024 and join the global movement of #GenerationRestoration.

The environment and environmental issues

This page from Many Answers will guide you to reviewed websites and databases on our environment and environmental issues.

Environmental problems of 2024

Some of the biggest environmental problems of our lifetime.

Team effort at mass planting day

Team effort at mass planting day

A team effort from volunteers on the mass planting day at Tawhirihoe Scientific Reserve for part of the Tangimoana sand dune stabilisation project. Photo: Sarah Davies.

Deforestation explained

An explanation of how deforestation can affect wildlife, ecosystems, weather patterns, and even climate change.

Earth Day is an annual event on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection.

Conservation Week | Te Wiki Tiaki Ao Tūroa

Teaching resources from TKI to inspire activities based on place and environment.

Conservation week

Each year DOC works with community groups across Aotearoa to spread the conservation message. It’s a nationwide celebration of kiwis pitching in to help our native plants and animals.

'The Seacoast: A Place to Live' artwork, 1980

'The Seacoast: A Place to Live' artwork, 1980

Original artwork for 1980 Conservation Week stickers, created by the Nature Conservation Council. Archives New Zealand reference: AAZU W3619 Box 86 collections.archives.govt.nz/web/arena/search#/?...

Conservation education resources

Education resources designed for students to learn about and appreciate New Zealand’s environment.

Conservation education

Find resources to support New Zealand conservation teaching and learning.

History of Conservation Week

History of Conservation Week including posters from over the years.

Te Mātauranga Taiao Conservation education

Learn about our natural world to understand what needs to be done.

Investigating environmental issues and taking action

Lesson plans to encourage children to find an environmental issue and work towards a solution.

Ocean plastic pollution

Data and statistics from UNESCO to understand the issue of plastic pollution and what we can do as individuals.

12 plastic pollution facts show why more needs to be done

Plastic pollution impacts the entire world and contributes to climate change.

Plastic — science and technology

A hub of activities, interactives and lesson plans to teach about plastic, its use, impact, recycling, and how to reduce its impact on the planet.

Phasing out hard-to-recycle and single-use plastics

The Government is phasing out certain hard-to-recycle plastics and six single-use items in three tranches.

Life in plastic (not so fantastic)

Find out how plastic makes its way into the environment and how the EPA is involved in a global fight against plastic pollution.

Climate crisis protest on The Square

Climate crisis protest on The Square

Protesters gathered on the Square ahead of the school protests of May 2019

Global warming for kids

Learn how carbon dioxide, methane etc. are responsible for global warming.

Recycling for kids

Find stickers, posters and teaching aids on recycling.

The Living Planet Report 2020

The findings of The Living Planet Report 2020 are clear. Our relationship with nature is broken.

From 1977 Arbor Day was celebrated on 5 June, and the emphasis was on planting New Zealand native trees.

Anti Fracking protest

Anti Fracking protest

Protesters in Wellington against fracking in New Zealand.

The collapse of Hauraki Gulf Marine Park

Two decades since its creation the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park is overfished and overrun with kina, sea urchins

Public Safety Conservation Act

Public Safety Conservation Act

In 20th-century New Zealand the cabinet came to hold great power and dominate the House of Representatives. An early example of the extent to which Parliament delegated power to cabinet was the Pub...

The Unnatural history of the Kakapo

The Unnatural history of the Kakapo

This documentary tells the tenuous survivor story of the kākāpō: the nocturnal flightless green parrot with "big sideburns and Victorian gentlemen's face" (as comedian Stephen Fry put it). A sole b...

Tiritiri Matangi

Wildlife conservation island

Tiritiri Matangi and the protection of New Zealand’s natural and historic heritage.

Kapiti Island

Kāpiti Island is one of New Zealand’s most important nature reserves. As early as 1870 it was identified as a possible site for a bird sanctuary, and in 1897 the government set it aside for this pu...

“Got one!”

In his cartoon, Nisbet draws attention to an often heated debate around the role of a pesticide called 1080. This poison (sodium fluoroacetate) is widely used to directly kill possums (and other pr...

Conservation week poster

Conservation week poster

By the 1980s the need and importance of conservation was recognised as being an essential component to maintaining and promoting our national identity. This conservation week poster and calendar ce...

MMP and pests

The hole in the ozone layer that forms part of Earth’s atmosphere is shown here in 2006 and 2009. The hole is centred over Antarctica, which is visible through it.

Erosion

One of the more severe impacts of removing forest cover from hill country (as this photograph shows) is erosion. Erosion occurs when topsoil and pasture is removed by flooding, and or storms and th...

Judy Hutt and Victor Anderlini

Judy Hutt and Victor Anderlini

Awareness and protection of New Zealand’s environment is not only restricted to the land. Since 1975 over 30 marine reserves have been established around New Zealand. In these areas all marine life...

Possum license

Possums are not native to New Zealand. They were successfully introduced from Australia in the 1850s in order to establish a fur trade. But no one then could have predicted the immense damage possu...

Save Waipoua forest!

Save Waipoua forest!

This poster from 1952 was part of a successful campaign to set aside and preserve some 9,105 hectares of the Waipoua forest as a sanctuary. Ecologically important, the Waipoua forest is one of a ha...

New Zealanders! protect your native birds

New Zealanders! protect your native birds

The Native Bird Protection Society (now known as Forest & Bird) was formed at a meeting in March 1923 - the same year this poster was published. The meeting was convened by environmentalist Captain...

Greenpeace members protesting against whaling

Greenpeace members protesting against whaling

The Rainbow Warrior which was bombed in 1985 was a Greenpeace vessel. Greenpeace is a non- governmental environmental organisation who campaign against worldwide issues such as climate change, gene...

Rena pollution sign

Rena pollution sign

Despite our ‘clean green’ image and our relative isolation we are no safer from environmental accidents than anywhere else in the world. This was graphically demonstrated (as the above signs shows)...

This non-profit organisation helps protect, sustain and restore New Zealand’s wildlife and environment.

Pollution and environment

Types of pollution and environmental issues.

The causes and impacts of deforestation.

What is pollution?

Video lesson that helps children identify the agents of pollution.

50 people who could save the planet

An article about people whose influence could be crucial for a greener planet.

Reduce, reuse, recycle

Information on how reducing, reusing and recycling can help your community.

Waste management

New Zealand generates almost 3.2 million tonnes of waste.

Computer technology measures forces behind kauri dieback

Computer technology is helping scientists to better understand the disease threatening our kauri forests.

Farming and environmental pollution

New Zealand has had a reputation for being ‘clean and green’ However, it’s becoming apparent that New Zealand has an environmental pollution problem, especially regarding water quality.

Land report highlights issues with soil degradation

An environmental report released in 2018 found we are damaging and losing our soils and our native plants and animals.

Bioforce – breeding bugs for biocontrol

New Zealand might be an island nation, but that doesn’t stop a variety of unwanted organisms finding their way to our shores.

Young Ocean Explorers

Our vision is to create generational change by connecting hearts and minds with the importance of enjoying and caring for our oceans.

The young ecoleaders award. School Journal Curriculum level 3: 2018

This play connects with concerns and the ways ordinary citizens can help address environmental issues.

Fox River rubbish spill should be declared a national disaster, volunteers say

Eight weeks into the clean-up effort on the Fox River in South Westland, 95 percent of its length remains contaminated by rubbish from a flood-torn landfill.

Posters on Conservation

Posters on Conservation

Posters with conservation as a common theme.

Wairarapa drought

Wairarapa drought

Bruce McKenzie, a Wairarapa farmer, looks anxious during a drought in Janurary 1998. When climate change brings increased droughts, it threatens the very livelihood of such people.

Environmental Encyclopedia

This book covers a range of environmental issues around the world. Read this book and others on this topic from Gale Virtual Reference Library available through EPIC. School login maybe required.

The Beginning of bush burn

The Beginning of bush burn

In an effort to create farmland, large tracts of our native forests were cut or burnt down. While bush burning effectively cleared the land it was a dangerous practice, and one that had a disastrou...

Forest conservation in New Zealand

Mr. Hooker inspects forest in New Zealand (1885) to report on kauri forests and forest conservation.

Pollution of the Waiwetu Stream

Hutt River Board discusses the pollution of the Waiwetu stream by oil from the railway workshops

Rāhui and conservation

Use of ‘rāhui’ and conservation-related words in nineteenth century New Zealand.

Rāhui sign, Hauraki

Rāhui sign, Hauraki

This sign indicates a modern form of rāhui (ban). The taking of pipi and cockles is prohibited in the area. The ban is the result of a partnership between the Ministry of Fisheries and the Hauraki ...

United Nations environment programme

Explore news and stories about climate change, green economy, biosafety and other programmes under taken by the United Nations.

Fighting kauri dieback

Kauri forests once covered over a million hectares of Aotearoa, from the Far North to Te Kauri, near Kawhia.

Climate change news

Climate change news, facts, causes and effects.

Find more information on environmental issues using EPIC databases like Global Issues in Context and Environmental Studies. School login maybe required.

In a very short amount of time the human population has exploded in size.

The importance of wetlands

Dismissed as worthless, pestilent places, wetlands—where the water table is at or near the Earth’s surface—are anything but.

Deadlocked: New Zealand’s NZ$1bn sand mining project

Trans-Tasman Resources has been involved in a protracted legal battle over a proposed off-shore sand mining project.

The true cost of dairy in Aotearoa.

Fight for the Wild

Documentary film and podcast series exploring the notion of a Predator Free 2050 in Aotearoa.

Land administered by the Department of Conservation

Land administered by the Department of Conservation

The Department of Conservation is responsible for New Zealand’s protected areas. These include national parks, forest parks, conservation parks and a wide range of reserves.

This is how it ends

In New Zealand, more than 4000 native species are at risk and Nature's dangerous decline is accelerating. Why? It’s us.

Season 2 Ep 1: Rabbits & other Pests

Season 2 Ep 1: Rabbits & other Pests

No-one knows for sure who first introduced rabbits to New Zealand, because no-one wanted to take the blame for what became one of New Zealand's biggest environmental and economic disasters. We star...

Keep starfish off the barbecue — New Zealanders call for rockpool protections

As over-harvesting of edible creatures adds to pressures on shoreline ecosystems, local groups and iwi urge temporary bans

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