New Zealanders value their environment. We are blessed with the great outdoors, beautiful beaches and a rich diversity of nature in our very own back yard. It is what gives us that unique quality of life that is makes us the envy of the world. 

And we have these natural spoils because Kiwis before us have worked tirelessly to put in place sensible laws that ensure we protect our heritage, our land and our values. And we should be proud of these achievements.

Yet, the very laws that were once held aloft as being the gold standard for putting the environment at the heart of development are now under threat.

To many, the Resource Management Act (RMA) – the very fabric of our clean, green nation - means different things to different people. For some it’s about building a deck or an extensi... Read more >

On Wednesday we revealed Sealord is the only big Australasian brand which has refused to stop sourcing tuna caught by fleets using a destructive fishing method which kills sharks, juvenile tuna and turtles.

New Zealand’s largest tuna brand says it will continue to source its tuna from boats using fish aggregating devices (FADs), which attract tuna and many other species, along with purse seine nets which let nothing escape. This deadly fishing method kills around 200,000 tonnes of other marine life every year.

Sealord, which trades on its image of sustainability, should have led the way in ending this deadly practice. Now, it’s the lonely cheerleader for a destructive fishing method being rejected by all its local competitors and by tuna brands around the world. That method is responsible f... Read more >

While 16 of our colleagues and friends gear up for an epic journey to the North Pole next month, volunteers and activists around the world are preparing to take the Arctic to their communities and politicians.

Thousands of people are expected to come together on April 20 to form human banners spelling out I ♥ Arctic. Volunteers in hundreds of cities in more than 30 countries are signed up and spreading the word, from Buenos Aires to Bangkok.

Get involved

Together we will call on political leaders to protect the Arctic from activities that put this fragile environment at risk, such as oil drilling and industrial fishing.

No Arctic oil drilling

US President Obama’s government review this month found that Shell, a massive company with profits in excess of $26 billion last year, was not ... Read more >

Today was a day to celebrate as CITES, the convention regulating the international trade of wild plants and animals, finally restricted the trade in key shark species and took steps to curb illegal logging.

Although you often hear talk that global environmental politics is dead and buried, days like today – when CITES finally showed its teeth and proved it has some bite – suggest that the death of multilateralism is highly exaggerated.

CITES currently has 177 member governments and usually makes headlines because it deals with the trade in impressive looking elephants, rhinos and tigers  – such as Thailand committing to end the ivory trade at this year's meeting.

But CITES deals with a lot more than elephants: it has some 5,000 animal species and 29,000 plant species on its over-full pla... Read more >

No truer words were said than US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar when he bluntly pointed out on Thursday that Shell "screwed up in 2012" during its chaotic attempt to drill for Arctic oil.

In a damning assessment of Shell's embarrassingly inept operations in Alaska, Salazar said the company will not be allowed to return without a comprehensive overhaul of its plans to avoid the same kind of mishaps that plagued its 2012 operations.

An Obama government review found that Shell, a massive company with profits in excess of $26 billion last year, was not prepared for the extreme conditions in the Arctic. Shell's ill-preparedness resulted in a series of accidents and the New Year's Eve grounding of its drill rig the Kulluk.

The review was harshly critical of Shell management and said the comp... Read more >

When it comes to political action on climate change, it’s the richest nations in the North that demand developing nations also act, which seems fair at first glance.

But it’s the rich nations of the North that reaped the benefits of industrialisation leaving the rest of the world in an economic backwater. And it’s the polluting gases from that industrialisation that’s driving the climate change now reigning down on the developing nations in the global South.

Now that the developing nations are doing just that – developing – they have become the engine of the global economy. Or put another way, unlike when the North jumped ahead economically, the progress in the South benefits the world as a whole.

It’s a cruel irony that now that those developing nations have raised their economic game... Read more >