Environmental warriors honoured

Forest & Bird has honoured Gisborne’s  Grant Vincent for his exceptional services over 48 years.

He was named as the winner of the Old Blue Award, Forest & Bird’s most prestigious award, at the organsation’s centenary conference in Wellington on Saturday.

He is the chair of the Gisborne Tairāwhiti branch of Forest & Bird.

The iwi-led Raukumara Pae Maunga restoration project was also honoured at the conference, with the Kotuku Award.

The project aims to control pest animals and plants and restore over 150,000 ha of the Raukumara Range.

Grant Vincent has been a member of Forest &  Bird since the mid-1970s, and after a period as Gisborne secretary, he has chaired the branch for at least 12 years. His work has included many submissions, lobbying the Gisborne District Council, advocacy and conservation projects.

“The backing and support of so many people over the years has kept me going because it has been a struggle at times,” Grant said. Gisborne Tairāwhiti Forest and Bird members, the organisation’s professional and legal staff and neighbouring branches have all provided crucial support.

“To know we have the backup of a strong organisation like Forest & Bird is very special.”

Long time branch secretary, Barry Foster, said Grant had been a real champion for Forest & Bird and was well known in the region for his conservation work.

Grant’s personality had been a major contributor to his success, he said.

“He’s a very easy-going guy who gets on with a wide range of people. He’s got a lot of integrity, a sense of humour and a positive attitude,” Barry said.

Land use, including forestry, has been a recurrent issue that Grant, along with branch members and Forest & Bird staff have campaigned on. The impact of insufficient rules and enforcement has been starkly evident in the devastation caused by recent floods in the region.

Grant has been Forest & Bird’s representative for eight years on the Te Tapuwae o Rongokako Marine Reserve committee that provides advice to the Department of Conservation (DoC). He has also campaigned for better controls on vehicles and dogs disrupting the nesting of New Zealand dotterels on Gisborne beaches.

He instigated a weed and pest control programme at Gray’s Bush, in 2010. The project continues to protect the 12ha DoC reserve of rare kahikatea and pūriri forest.

Grant is also well known for writing about conservation issues, especially 1080 and pest control in The Gisborne Herald.

There are no immediate plans to retire. “I guess I’ll carry on agitating at the district council and elsewhere. It’s really special to belong to Forest and Bird and there are so many people who keep me motivated.”

The Old Blue is awarded by New Zealand’s largest independent conservation organisation, to people who have made an outstanding contribution to Forest & Bird or the organisation’s conservation goals.

The award commemorates the last breeding female black robin which, thanks to work led by pioneering conservationist Don Merton, saved the species from extinction in the 1980s.

Forest & Bird presented the Kōtuku Award to Raukumara Pae Maunga, a joint project of Te Whānau-ā-Apanui iwi of the Eastern Bay of Plenty and Ngāti Porou iwi of the East Coast in collaboration with the Department of Conservation.

The goal is to restore the health of wildlife and forest of the Raukumara, which has been devastated by introduced animals including deer, goats, possums, stoats and rats.

The project is an iwi-led response to the crisis which has brought Te Raukumara to the brink of ecological collapse.

Ora Barlow-Tukaki of Te Whānau-ā-Apanui said there was a passion among the people to understand what was happening to the ngahere (forest) so it could be healed.

“When you hear that ultimate truth, you have to act in a courageous way,” Ora said.

“Where we feel right now is really at the beginning of our time to heal the Raukumara. We’re living in a fairly silent forest but there is a determination by us to do right by a forest that’s really been failed by the conservation system.”

The vision of the project is to restore the forest for future generations.

“As it was in the days of our tīpuna, the mana and mauri of te Raukumara restored to again thrive, flourish and nurture all who are connected to it. A ngahere that is protected for our mokopuna to come,” Raukumara Pae Maunga says.

The impact of introduced predators and browsers, as well as destroying the health and regeneration of the forest, has worsened the effects of floods and damaged the health of rivers.

Raukumara Pae Maunga’s operations are getting into full swing this year with ground predator control, deer and goat aerial culling, 1080 applications and monitoring work. One of the key aims of the project is to share skills and knowledge among iwi members and to create local jobs.

Forest & Bird deputy president Kate Graeme said Te Raukumara Pae Maunga had put enormous time and effort into communicating the problems with their hapū and communities and working to secure government funding.

“Te Raukumara Pae Maunga has been exceptional in communicating the implications of introduced pests on the vulnerable native forest, problem solving and rallying support to control the introduced invasive species,” Kate said.

“All the people who fall within the cloak of Te Raukumara Pae Maunga are environmental warriors and should be recognised and celebrated for their work that has begun to restore the mauri and mana of Te Raukumara ngahere.”

The Kōtuku Award is presented to an individual or group outside Forest & Bird who has made an outstanding and profound contribution to environmental management or guardianship in Aotearoa New Zealand.