Kia ora!

You are one of nearly 12,500 people who have signed the petition to Gisborne District Council (GDC) asking for: (1) an independent inquiry into land use in Tairāwhiti; (2) land use rule changes within the region; and (3) a Just Transition Plan to look after workers and the economy as the footprint of pasture and pine in the region shrinks and permanent indigenous forests recover the most erosion-prone areas. 

Largely thanks to you who signed the petition organised by Mana Taiao Tairāwhiti, there have been some momentous changes at a local and national level - here are our Top 10: 

1. In January 2023, we presented the petition to GDC and the Council unanimously agreed to ask central government for an independent inquiry into land use in Tairāwhiti;
2. In February 2023, the Labour-led Government agreed to support a Ministerial Inquiry into Land Use (MILU) in Tairāwhiti and Te Wairoa, they appointed a three person panel headed by Hekia Parata with local and national staff support from the Ministry for the Environment and Ministry for Primary Industries; 
3. In March 2023, the inquiry received hundreds of submissions, including the submission of Mana Taiao Tairāwhiti that was written by more than 100 volunteer researchers and writers with a number of papers prepared as appendices to support MTT recommendations;
4. The MILU process and report 'Outrage to Optimism' was completed in three months and included 49 recommendations, including the three key recommendations MTT had put forward;
5. In August 2023, the Labour-led Government responded to the report with four key initial actions and promised to provide a full response to all recommendations by the end of 2023; 
6. In November 2023, one of the most significant changes enacted was an upgrade of the national rules for commercial harvesting on erosion-prone land and to require companies to remove nearly all debris thicker than 10cm and longer than two metres from all harvest sites;
7. As requested in the petition, GDC also announced a reprioritisation of the Tairāwhiti Resource Management Plan to focus on land use across the region given nearly 90 percent of land is prone to erosion and very significant proposed changes were announced this month based on new science and evidence compiled as a result of the petition requests; 
8. GDC also took heed of the petitioners request to pursue Enforcement Orders against forestry companies that had breached harvesting consent conditions or needed consent conditions changed - the role of the petition as catalyst for a number of actions in the Environment Court was noted by lawyers for GDC in a 'watershed' case earlier this month;
9. Mana Taiao Tairāwhiti also contacted the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) last year to ask why forestry companies that had been successfully prosecuted for breaking the law were retaining their FSC certifications - this has resulted in a number of reviews of dodgy audits by international auditors of forests in Tairāwhiti and exposed a distressing level of either negligence or corruption by auditors who signed off forests and companies that should never have retained FSC certification. Forestry companies have had their FSC accreditation suspended across the country until they can prove their failings have been addressed and the audit companies involved has also been put on notice by FSC pending complete overhauls of their terrible practices;
10. GDC is establishing a transition working group to explore options for a fair and timely transition of land use in the region, the initial group meets next month and Mana Taiao Tairāwhiti has been invited to participate alongside farmers, forestry industry representatives and GDC as regulator.

So, this is all really helpful progress since the petition was signed, but it is really just the beginning and there is more to be done. We have been waiting for the new coalition Government to provide a response to the MILU recommendations. This wasn't part of the 100 day plan, and it seems sustainable land use and economic activity in Tairāwhiti still isn't a priority for the new Government. New pine plantations are still being established on erosion-prone land in the central and northern parts of Tairāwhiti right now with little thought to what will happen as the trees mature and we get more extreme weather events. The Government last week announced new plans to increase pine planting on the most erosion-prone land, which shows how out of touch with Tairāwhiti they are at present.

To help encourage the Government to progress key recommendations from the MILU report, we met with National's East Coast MP Dana Kirkpatrick last week and presented her with the list of MTT's priority MILU recommendations. You can click here to see our list of priorities we need to see action on.

So, we'd like to ask for your support again, with a short email to Dana Kirkpatrick (Dana.Kirkpatrick@parliament.govt.nz) saying something like:

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Dear Dana, 

Please raise with your colleagues Todd McClay (Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Forestry) and Penny Simmonds (Minister for the Environment) the urgent need to respond to the ongoing environmental crisis in Tairāwhiti that is continuing on their watch.

Mana Taiao Tairāwhiti has presented you with a list of priority recommendations from the Ministerial Inquiry into Land Use in Tairāwhiti and Te Wairoa, and I would like to know when the residents of Tairāwhiti can expect a response from the Government to these key recommendations that need to be actioned urgently.  

Thank you.

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Please feel free to send us a copy too, so we know how many requests have been sent.

Thank you again for your support, we really appreciate the time you took to sign our petition and we hope we can count on you to help Tairāwhiti communities again this time.

Arohanunui! 

Hera Ngata-Gibson

on behalf of te whānau o Mana Taiao Tairāwhiti.