Environment – Aotea Green – Great Barrier Island News – Barrier.news – Aotea Great Barrier Island News

A Fullers ferry crosses the Hauraki Gulf from Waiheke Island towards Auckland. The gulf is the focus of new legislation expanding marine protection zones across the region.

New Marine Protections for Hauraki Gulf Clear Parliament

Legislation expanding marine protection across the Hauraki Gulf has passed its third and final reading in Parliament, despite criticism over a last-minute exemption allowing commercial ring-net fishing in some of the new restricted zones. The Hauraki Gulf Tīkapa Moana Marine…

This bright-green invasive caulerpa seaweed is smothering the delicate marine ecosystem on Great Barrier Island. Photo / Glenn Edney

Caulerpa bans lifted in key bays, but whole island now a controlled area

The Ministry for Primary Industries has eased anchoring bans in several Aotea harbours after the invasive seaweed Caulerpa began dying off in places where it was first discovered, but at the same time MPI’s expanded the Controlled Area to cover…

Aotea Health’s rongoā Māori skincare range on display at the new Auckland International Airport concept store.

Aotea Expands its Rongoā Māori Reach with New Airport Concept Store

Aotea Health, the company that took Great Barrier Island and rongoā Māori to the world through its partnership with Air New Zealand, is expanding again with a new concept store at Auckland International Airport. Founded by Tama Toki, a former…

Blood moon as dark skies reveal the total lunar eclipse.

Blood Moon Set to Rise Over Aotea on Monday Morning

Stargazers on Aotea will be treated to a total lunar eclipse early on Monday 8 September, with the “blood moon” set to create a spectacular dawn display. The eclipse begins in the early hours, with the first stages starting at…

Aerial view of Tuvalu’s capital, Funafuti, 2011. Tuvalu is a remote country of low lying atolls, making it vulnerable to climate change. Photo: Lily-Anne Homasi / DFAT / CC

Environment - Aotea Green

What will happen to the legal status of ‘sinking’ island nations when their land is gone?

By Avidan Kent, University of East Anglia and Zana Syla, University of East Anglia Small island nations such as Tuvalu, Kiribati, the Maldives and Marshall Islands are particularly vulnerable to climate change. Rising seas, stronger storms, freshwater shortages and damaged…

"Pine-ing" for answers: Landowners left in the dark after council fells trees on disputed boundary, despite prior arborist inspection. Photo / CC

Environment - Aotea Green

The Great Tree Planting Myth: Why Reforestation Won’t Deliver Net Zero

By Pep Canadell, CSIRO The climate benefits of planting trees may have been greatly overestimated, but swift action could ensure reforestation meets its potential to curb dangerous emissions, new research has found. Reforestation – or replanting trees in areas that…

Environment - Aotea Green

Rangitoto Still Smouldering After 600 Years

By Felix Walton, RNZ

Environment - Aotea Green

Council Imposes New Planning Controls on Five Barrier Sites

Five sites on Great Barrier Island have been brought under new cultural planning controls by Auckland Council, following a vote of its Policy and Planning Committee this month. The sites—Hirakimatā (Mount Hobson), Komahunga, Korotiti, Poutekorua, and Ruahine—are the first on…

Little Barrier Island Anchoring Ban as Caulerpa Crackdown Widens

Photo / Kathrin & Stefan Marks / CC

Visitor Levy Funds Poison and Trapping in National Parks

The government has announced that $22 million collected from international visitors will be used over the next three years to fund large-scale poison and trapping operations, and goat culls across New Zealand’s national parks and offshore islands. Conservation Minister Tama…