Resource library

South Otago conservationist couple Jane and Jim Young have been honoured with Forest & Bird’s prestigious Old Blue award for their outstanding work with the organisation’s South Otago branch and for conservation over many years. 

Jessica Lamb of Ōtautahi Christchurch has been awarded Forest & Bird’s Te Kaiārahi Rangatahi o te Taiao Youth Award for her leadership in Forest & Bird Youth and dedicated service to conservation and the environment.  

Forest & Bird has honoured Upper Coromandel with its branch award for its exceptional advocacy for nature and hands-on environmental protection and restoration work. 

Forest & Bird has honoured six long-serving members with the Tī Kōuka award for their exceptional service over a long period to the organisation and to conservation in their regions. 

Forest & Bird has announced the recipients of the organisation's annual honours at their AGM today. These include: 

Leading New Zealand ecologist and botanist Dr Kelvin Lloyd has been awarded Forest & Bird’s prestigious Old Blue award for his outstanding work protecting and enhancing New Zealand’s natural treasures.

Ian (Mo) Turnbull of Hāwea has received Forest and Bird’s prestigious Old Blue award for his outstanding service to Forest & Bird’s Central Otago Lakes branch and to conservation in his region.  

Forest & Bird is condemning a new Government plan to accept pests like deer and tahr in our national parks.

Forest & Bird is devastated by the scale of a recent commercial bycatch event that saw 207 seabirds, in this case adult tītī sooty shearwater, caught by a single trawler near Te Waewae Bay, off the Southland coast, leaving their chicks to starve to

Forest & Bird says groundbreaking NIWA-led research, just released, shows New Zealand’s native forests are absorbing significantly more carbon dioxide than previously thought and this should be the catalyst for urgent Government action to knock down

Forest & Bird cautiously welcomes today’s government announcement on the development of a high integrity ‘voluntary nature credits market’ in Aotearoa New Zealand.  

Forest & Bird is asking Inland Revenue Te Tari Taake whether the fines for illegally draining a wetland are also tax deductible, after the department published a "how-to" on claiming expenses for destroying critical habitats.

Forest & Bird’s iconic Bird of the Year competition is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year – two decades of campaigning, squawking, strategising, and sparking real action for our native birds. 

New Zealand’s environment and communities will face greater pollution, increased biodiversity loss and environmental damage, with a long-term cost to the economy, if today’s Government rollbacks come into effect. 

Forest & Bird is calling on the Government to create a new scientific reserve covering the Denniston Plateau on the West Coast to save it from being mined for coal. 

Forest & Bird says the Government’s lack of investment in New Zealand’s environment in Budget 2025 is deeply concerning given the importance of the environment to our economy and society. 

The week after the Government published an action plan which skirts around a $1.5 billion gap in funding for conservation, Forest & Bird is baffled by the prioritisation of government time and energy into helping 512 hunters shoot 86 deer in a natio

Rat footprints have been discovered inside Tarapuruhi Bushy Park, near Whanganui, during a major incursion response, Forest & Bird confirmed today. 

Forest & Bird says the need to urgently increase planting and regeneration of native forests as permanent carbon sinks and for native biodiversity is backed up by a report out today from the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (PCE),

Forest & Bird is concerned about modelling revealing that meeting the Government’s climate commitments would require planting vast areas of conservation and other Crown land in permanent pine forests, in a desperate attempt to meet Aotearoa New Zeal

Forest & Bird says the resource management reforms announced today need to protect, restore, and enhance the things that matter to Kiwis. New Zealanders care about the environment, they love our quality of life. 

Adding climate-damaging coal to a critical minerals list ignores climate change, flies in the face of New Zealand’s national identity, and is internationally embarrassing for our environmental reputation, says Forest & Bird’s Chief Executive Nicola

Forest & Bird is deeply concerned that politicians are continuing to misrepresent the value of stewardship land.

A twin assault on the future protection of conservation land by the Prime Minister and Minister for Resources is cause for alarm, says Forest & Bird’s Chief Executive, Nicola Toki. 

Forest & Bird is pledging to oppose environmentally damaging projects that are put through the fast-track environmental override voted on in Parliament this afternoon.

Forest & Bird says the Government could be onto a winner with their proposal to plant trees on Crown-owned land – but only if those trees are natives. 

Forest & Bird today released a letter from the Ombudsman outlining an investigation into the Ministry for the Environment (MfE) over a refusal to release information under an OIA about the Fast-track Approvals Bill.   

Forest & Bird is appalled that the key regional tool to improve water quality in Southland – farm plans – is being deferred by the Government.

Modernisation of New Zealand’s conservation system is overdue, but Forest & Bird calls on the National-led coalition government to ensure that its focus is on improving conservation and protecting biodiversity.

The Fast-track Approvals Bill is back from select committee and Forest & Bird is alarmed that the purpose for the legislation is to enable coal and gold to be dug up, the seabed to be mined and rivers to be dammed with little or no regard for the en

Parliament’s Environment Committee must delay reporting back on the Fast-track Approvals Bill until it has time to properly consider the proposed projects, says Forest & Bird. 

It is crucial that nature-based solutions are prioritised in future climate adaptation legislation, says Forest & Bird, after Parliament’s Inquiry into climate adaptation report was released today. 

Forest & Bird warns New Zealanders should be concerned about the coalition Government’s Resource Management Act reforms signaled today.
 

The hoiho yellow-eyed penguin has won Te Manu Rongonui o Te Tau Bird of the Year 2024. 

Hoiho, securing a decisive victory with 6,328 votes, wears the coveted crown atop its golden head for the second time. It previously won in 2019.

After five years of legal proceedings, the Supreme Court has delivered a mixed judgment but ultimately upheld Forest & Bird’s core challenge that overfished stocks need to be rebuilt within a period that is based on the stock’s biology and environme

The hoiho yellow-eyed penguin has overtaken the karure Chatham Island robin, waddling into first place in Bird of the Year 2024.