College marine team gives nature a voice as they champion for marine protection
Monday, 6 December 2021
Two years after a 'marine team' from the Marborough Girls' College met with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to press for marine protection in the Marlborough Sounds, a new team have posed the question “why has nothing been done?”
Marlborough Girls’ College students Zoe Luffman and Nicole Geyser visited with Marlborough Mayor John Leggett recently to deliver a letter and present a poster and other supporting documents.
The girls, who are both studying Environmental Sustainability in their final year of school, had spent two terms preparing their presentation, and had looked at current legislations and policy gaps.
They said there was an imbalance between environmental and human centric values and that marine-based values could have more of a voice in future decisions.
**READ MORE:
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* PM Jacinda Ardern gives hope to college marine team with second 'stay in touch' message
* Young Marlborough marine team vow to 'stay strong' on Sounds protection
* Marlborough students push on with marine protection battle for the Sounds
**
“Someone needs to speak up for the environment, because the environment doesn't have a voice, but it has values,” Nicole said.
“Our main goal is to create awareness and start conversations, but we want action to happen,” she said. “It would be interesting to see how many people would take into consideration going to talk to council about our project and pushing for marine protection.
“We'd like to challenge the wider community to speak up. It's important that we raise awareness to council, so they can see it's not just two people that are concerned, it's a whole lot of people, and then hopefully they can cut through the red tape and make it happen.”
The focus of the girls' work is the restoration of habitats within the Marlborough Sounds while increasing marine biodiversity.
They believe if healthy, robust ecosystems are created, the effects of climate change will be easier to handle.
Leggett welcomed the presentation and congratulated the girls on their work.
“It is so important that students like you do projects like this to keep these issues front of mind. Things are changing; they are changing because of projects like this. It’s the way you make change,” he said.
Administration of current policies and legislation focus on enabling and supporting human activities and values, and largely exclude concepts and values associated with the wairua and mauri of our natural world and oceans, say the girls.
Wairua is the Māori belief that all things have a spirit as well as a physical body. Mauri connects or binds the spirit with the physical, and everything has mauri.
The girls considered how the iwi perspective placed the natural world’s needs above human needs, and this allowed all things to maintain a stable state.
“Many policies we looked at take the opposite perspective, and placed human values above the natural world,” they said.
“We hope our research encourages the Marlborough District Council, Department of Conservation, and other government agencies to understand and start to instigate widespread change.
“We need these groups and others to work together to create one overarching policy, or integrate policies, to actively enable nature's voice everywhere to be heard.
“This is urgent. We need to restore and regenerate our oceans' health through maintaining and enhancing current ecosystems and increasing resilience to climate change.
“New Zealand is surrounded by the ocean, it is a crucial part of our culture. As New Zealanders we depend on the sea to fulfil our needs not just physically but emotionally and spiritually.
“The sea provides a niche for families to come together and provides food for the table. To sustain this niche, nature needs to have a voice and be valued,” they said.
The marine team intend to send their work to the Prime Minister.