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Most of our rivers, lakes, and wetlands have better protection from new freshwater rules announced today, but a few key omissions leave our fresh water at risk. 
 

A new Bill before Parliament needs to be strengthened before it can stop long-term biodiversity loss on New Zealand’s nationally-treasured high country landscapes, says Forest & Bird.
 

Fisheries NZ Minister Stuart Nash’s 2019 decision to allow East Coast tarakihi stocks to remain overfished for the next 25 years is not environmentally sustainable or legal, Forest & Bird will argue in the Wellington High Court from July 22nd.

Forest & Bird and Federated Mountain Clubs are taking court action over management of Paparoa National Park.
 

Forest & Bird has won in the Supreme Court against a coal mining company trying to push through an opencast mine near Westport, in a ruling which has implications across the whole of New Zealand.

Forest & Bird is pleased Friday’s High Court ruling on the introduced tahr population control is clear - Himalayan tahr must be reduced to 10,000 animals, removed entirely from National Parks, and the Department of Conservation (DOC) can get started

Forest & Bird welcomes a new sustainable vision for the primary sector, but says it needs to be backed up with strong rules, meaningful support, and a change of attitude from industry laggards.
 

The Government has listened to public demands to save Māui and Hector’s dolphins, but loopholes remain in the Threat Management Plan announced today.

Forest & Bird is seeking a declaration from the High Court that an operational plan to control tahr is illegal, and fails to meet the requirements for national parks and wilderness areas.

Without change, the RMA fast-track bill will sacrifice environmental protection to speed up projects which may not even help with the economic recovery, Forest & Bird told the Environment Select Committee today.
 

Forest & Bird is calling on the Government to reinstate a freshwater nitrogen limit of 1.0 mg/l into its proposed freshwater reforms, after the organisation obtained alarming readings of nitrate-nitrogen in public drinking water supplies.

Forest & Bird is calling on Aucklanders to tell their council to reinstate protection for nature in this year’s budget.
 

Forest & Bird has named Waitākere as the winner of its annual branch award for its outstanding work in protecting and advocating for nature in West Auckland.

Sophie Handford has been named winner of Forest & Bird’s Te Kaiārahi Rangatahi o te Taiao youth award after a year in which she led New Zealand’s School Strike 4 Climate movement and became one of the youngest ever local body councillors.

Liz Carter has been awarded Forest & Bird’s prestigious Old Blue for outstanding service to the Napier branch, including more than three decades as a committee member.

Patricia (Pat) Heffey of Kamo has been awarded Forest & Bird’s leading Old Blue honour for her decades working to protect nature in Northland, including her leading role in saving Ngunguru Sandspit from development. 

Our rivers, lakes, and wetlands will have better protection from new freshwater rules, but a few key omissions leave it to chance whether our freshwater can be brought back from the brink.

The new National Action Plan for protecting seabirds from commercial fishing hooks and nets has made a big leap forward, with a new goal of reducing seabird deaths to zero.

Forest & Bird’s annual Be With a Tree celebration this year focuses on the intangible benefits of trees to people. 

Forest & Bird has laid an urgent complaint with the Chief Ombudsman, after MBIE officials took 30 days to refuse a request to release information on how the decisions are being weighted on nearly 2000 ‘shovel-ready’ project proposals.
 

Forest & Bird is appearing in the Supreme Court in Wellington today against Stevenson Mining, the coal company planning an opencast mine on the pristine mountain top of Te Kuha on the West Coast of the South Island
 

A $1 billion investment in environmental jobs is a significant boost for New Zealand’s struggling native wildlife, rivers, wetlands, and forests but Forest & Bird isn’t calling Budget2020 a victory for people and planet just yet.  

Forest & Bird is relieved that an urgent court order has been granted to protect a highly significant ecosystem at Kaitorete, a narrow stretch of ecologically significant land between Te Waihora/Lake Ellesmere and the sea.
 

The Ministry for the Environment's (MFE) latest report on fresh water warns that without rapid change in how we treat our environment, New Zealand's identity, wellbeing, cultural values, and economy are at risk (Pg 14).

Agricultural leaders calling for environmental rules to be ditched in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic are not only putting environmental health at risk, but public health too, says Forest & Bird.

NGOs urge a green COVID-19 recovery 

Forest & Bird is celebrating a Court of Appeal decision this afternoon that the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) was wrong to rubber-stamp a proposal to mine the sea floor off the Taranaki Coast.

Nearly 8,000 individuals made a submission calling for the introduction of a catch limit, fishing licence, and data collection to the whitebait fishery, through a Forest & Bird online submission page.  

No kōkako chicks survived in four monitored nests this summer at Forest & Bird’s Ark in the Park in the Waitakere Ranges.

Forest & Bird has expressed deep horror and sadness that kauri dieback has been confirmed in Puketi Forest, and are demanding the government fund and implement the stalled National Pest Management Plan for kauri dieback.

Forest & Bird is urging the Government is take action to save some of New Zealand's most loved animals, Māui and Hector's dolphins, from extinction. 

Forest & Bird has released a series of before and after satellite images showing some of the thousands of hectares of native habitat cleared across the country in recent years.

Forest & Bird has sent a letter to the Prime Minister, and other Government Ministers, asking for increased funding for essential wilding pine control.
 

Auckland's rare bats could get a badly needed boost if a government plan to strengthen environmental policy goes through, says Forest & Bird.

Forest & Bird has presented government ministers Stuart Nash and Eugenie Sage with a 10,481-signature petition, and over 3000 individual submissions calling for an end to the commercial fishing practices the government estimates kill up to 14,400 se

Joint statement from Forest & Bird and National Wetland Trust