Displaying 1 - 24 of 93 results.

A newly completed upgrade of Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park’s popular Hooker Valley track makes it easier for visitors to experience the spectacle of New Zealand’s highest mountains, Conservation Minister Maggie Barry says.

Ms Barry officially opened the improved track at a ceremony outside Mt Cook Village today.

The $1.7 million project means the track is less prone to flooding, avoids potential avalanche and rockfall areas and is more accessible for walkers.

  • Maggie Barry
  • Conservation

Ten young takahē released in the Murchison Mountains of Fiordland are the latest success for the species’ ongoing recovery programme, Conservation Minister Maggie Barry says.

“This year has been a very successful one for takahe recovery, with 30 birds set to bolster the wild population in the Murchisons – the only place the species can still be seen in the wild,” Ms Barry says.

Accompanied by Recovery Programme partners Ngāi Tahu and Mitre 10, Ms Barry helped to release the ten young birds yesterday.

  • Maggie Barry
  • Conservation

Environment Minister Dr Nick Smith and Conservation Minister Maggie Barry today announced the appointment of three additional members to the Auckland Unitary Plan independent hearings panel.

“The remaining Auckland Unitary Plan hearings include significant work relating to site specific hearings on the rural urban boundary, rezoning and precincts. The additional members will help ensure the panel meets its deadline of delivering recommendations to the Auckland Council on the proposed Unitary Plan by 22 July 2016,” Dr Smith says.

  • Nick Smith
  • Maggie Barry
  • Environment
  • Conservation

Thousands of visitors have taken the chance to experience the Pukeahu National War Memorial Park in Wellington since it opened in April this year, Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Maggie Barry says.

“In April the park attracted 16,116 visitors with a further estimated 50,000 at the Anzac Day Dawn Service, and numbers have remained high,” Ms Barry says.

  • Maggie Barry
  • Conservation
  • Arts, Culture and Heritage

Conservation Minister Maggie Barry has welcomed a new partnership which will help inform Chinese New Zealanders and Chinese tourists about the threat of kauri dieback disease.

Ms Barry joined with the Chinese Conservation Education Trust and the Kauri Dieback Programme to announce the $20,000 partnership at Arataki Visitor’s Centre in Auckland’s Waitakere Ranges today.

  • Maggie Barry
  • Conservation

Conservation Minister Maggie Barry has welcomed the launch of Project Taranaki Mounga, a major new partnership which has the potential to change the face of conservation in New Zealand.

“This is an exciting project with ambitious goals which will have a significant impact not only on Taranaki and its wildlife, but also for regional tourism, environmental education and the local economy,” Ms Barry says.

  • Maggie Barry
  • Conservation

Conservation and Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Maggie Barry has congratulated the young winners of the 9th annual The Outlook for Someday film challenge.

“The Outlook for Someday is all about sustainability, celebrating New Zealand’s natural world and exploring the social and environmental challenges which confront us as a nation,” Ms Barry says.

  • Maggie Barry
  • Arts, Culture and Heritage
  • Conservation

The Crown and Ngāi Tuhoe welcome the launch of Te Urewera’s inaugural Statement of Priorities in Taneatua today.

“This launch is significant as it demonstrates the excellent progress the Te Urewera Board has made since Te Urewera was declared a legal entity last year,” Mr Finlayson says.

The Statement of Priorities invites public feedback on a framework for Te Kawa O Te Urewera, a 10 year management plan which sets out the objectives and policies for Te Urewera. Te Kawa O Te Urewera is due to be finalised in September 2017.

  • Maggie Barry
  • Christopher Finlayson
  • Conservation
  • Attorney-General

Protection of New Zealand’s vulnerable native wildlife from smuggling, poaching and hunting will be modernised and improved by a bill introduced to Parliament today, Conservation Minister Maggie Barry says.

The Wildlife (Powers) Amendment Bill will reform the Wildlife Act 1953 to give full-time DOC rangers new powers when they encounter offences in progress.

“Under the Act, DOC is responsible for the investigation and prosecution of crimes against native wildlife, including poaching,” Ms Barry says.

  • Maggie Barry
  • Conservation

Rare native birds and threatened wetlands in Fiordland National Park will be protected by a new partnership between the Department of Conservation and Transpower, Conservation Minister Maggie Barry says.

The partnership, worth $100,000 over five years, will see a range of conservation work in the Borland-Grebe Valley area of the national park, which is traversed by the national grid operator’s transmission lines.

  • Maggie Barry
  • Conservation

Governance of the Waitangi Treaty Grounds will be strengthened after the Waitangi National Trust Board Amendment Bill passed its third and final reading today, Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Maggie Barry says.

“These changes are about the Government working constructively with the Board to protect Waitangi for current and future generations,” Ms Barry says.

“They amend and modernise the Waitangi National Trust Board Act 1932, which vests the Waitangi Treaty Grounds and wider estate in the Board, to be held for the nation.”

  • Maggie Barry
  • Arts, Culture and Heritage

Outstanding advocacy for protection of New Zealand’s seabirds by the fishing industry has been recognised tonight at the Seabird Smart Awards, Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy and Conservation Minister Maggie Barry say.

“New Zealand is a home for more than one third of the world’s seabird species and we have a responsibility as a nation to ensure they survive,” Ms Barry says.

  • Nathan Guy
  • Maggie Barry
  • Primary Industries
  • Conservation

The Department of Conservation will be ready to meet a potential plague of rats and stoats threatening vulnerable native species next year, Conservation Minister Maggie Barry says.

A heavy seeding in beech forests, known as a mast, could lead to a rapid rise in rat and stoat numbers, putting vulnerable native birds at risk. The last mast took place in the summer of 2013-14.

  • Maggie Barry
  • Conservation

Tāmaki College principal Soana Pamaka has been appointed to the Board of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Maggie Barry has announced.

“Mrs Pamaka has an extensive track record of achievement as an educator, an understanding of younger people and a wide-ranging cultural knowledge. She will bring a fresh perspective to the important work of the Te Papa Board,” Ms Barry says.

  • Maggie Barry
  • Arts, Culture and Heritage

Two islands in Abel Tasman National Park will become specially protected areas to protect breeding colonies of New Zealand fur seals, Conservation Minister Maggie Barry has announced.

The decision means public access to Tonga and Pinnacle Islands will not be allowed except by permit to prevent disturbing the seals.

“Tonga Island is home to the second largest of three fur seal breeding colonies in the top of the South Island, while seals are also starting to breed on Pinnacle Island,” Ms Barry says.

  • Maggie Barry
  • Conservation

A successful, community-backed 1080 operation in Northland’s Warawara Forest points the way forward for more effective pest control in the region, Conservation Minister Maggie Barry says.

With the support of local iwi Te Rarawa, Reconnecting Northland and the Northland Regional Council, DOC has carried out a successful aerial 1080 drop across 6608 hectares of forest, home to rare birds including the tiny rifleman.

  • Maggie Barry
  • Conservation

Corrections Minister Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga and Conservation Minister Maggie Barry today signed an agreement which will see offenders engaged in conservation work and learning new skills at the same time.

Under the Good to Grow partnership between Corrections and the Department of Conservation (DOC), offenders on community sentences will help look after DOC sites, upgrade and maintain tracks and help to win the War on Weeds across the country.

  • Maggie Barry
  • Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga
  • Corrections
  • Conservation

An award-winning New Zealand-designed wasp bait could make a significant difference in the fight against the costly pests, Conservation Minister Maggie Barry says.

Nelson-based Richard Toft has won a Conservation Innovation award from the World Wide Fund for Nature for his development of Vespex, which has recently been successfully trialled by the Department of Conservation.

“Wasps are one of the most damaging invertebrate pests in New Zealand and I congratulate Mr Toft on winning this innovation award,” Ms Barry says.

  • Maggie Barry
  • Conservation

Helping promote good mental health and protect New Zealand’s precious natural environment is the goal of a new agreement announced today by Conservation Minister Maggie Barry.

The partnership between the Department of Conservation and Mental Health Foundation has been sealed by the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding.

It will see both organisations work together to develop projects and connections which will improve mental health and wellbeing and benefit conservation efforts across the country.

  • Maggie Barry
  • Conservation

Conservation Week 2015 is a chance to get active outdoors and look after New Zealand’s natural world, Conservation Minister Maggie Barry says.

“The theme for 2015 is ‘Healthy Nature, Healthy People’ and it’s about the link between looking after our special natural places and the tangible health benefits you can enjoy from experiencing them.”

  • Maggie Barry
  • Conservation

Conservation Minister Maggie Barry says progress on red knot protection in China is a significant step towards safeguarding the bird’s migration routes.

On a visit to the Pukorokoro-Miranda Shorebird Centre in Thames today, Ms Barry met with Chinese Ambassador Wang Lutong to discuss his work to secure protection for vital migratory bird wetland habitats in China’s Bohai Bay.

  • Maggie Barry
  • Conservation

A new agreement will encourage collaboration between the New Zealand and Polish screen industries, Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Maggie Barry says.

“The Poland-New Zealand Film Co-Production Agreement was signed yesterday by Ambassador to Poland Wendy Hinton and the Polish Culture and National Heritage Minister, Malgorzata Omilanowska,” Ms Barry says.

  • Maggie Barry
  • Arts, Culture and Heritage

The return of a rare native plant which has been brought back from extinction in the wild is a significant achievement for plant protection in New Zealand, Conservation Minister Maggie Barry says.

A rare white variant of the red kakabeak (ngutukākā or Clianthus) which grew at the Tiniroto cliffs near Wairoa has not been seen in the wild since the 1950s.

  • Maggie Barry
  • Conservation

Conservation Minister Maggie Barry says the Environment Aotearoa report released today has given New Zealand a measurable and robust benchmark for environmental performance and conservation goals.

“You can’t manage what you can’t measure, and this report provides us with statistics of ongoing usefulness which will underpin future decision-making,” Ms Barry says.

  • Maggie Barry
  • Conservation