Greening Taupō and the Sustainable Development Goals

For the last few months we have had Sarah, a Masters student join our team. She has spent 320 hours working with Project Tongariro as the final part of her Master’s in the Sustainable Development Goals. She has specialised in environmental sustainability so this was the perfect placement for her. She has been looking at the work of Greening Taupō and Project Tongariro and how it lines up with this global agenda. She has also been helping out with lots of other aspects of our work and you are likely to have met her at Wicked Weeders or at one of our planting days.

What are the Sustainable Development Goals? They outline a global agenda for a sustainable future worldwide. In 2015 all the countries in the United Nations signed up to achieve these goals by 2030. They are considered transformative and audacious, wanting to eliminate poverty and hunger whilst improving the environment and the economy. Acknowledging that to have a sustainable future we need to look after people, planet and prosperity.

How are they relevant to Greening Taupō? The mission of Greening Taupō is to improve the local environment for both people and native wildlife. Our action is local but it is the cumulation of small local changes which create change at national and global scales. Along with our partners Kids Greening Taupō and Predator Free Taupō our work aligns with 8 of these 17 goals.

Providing opportunities for nature connection, outdoor activity and community building helps improve physical and mental health of individuals and helps build more connected communities.

Kids Greening Taupō provide opportunities for students to learn about and take action to protect New Zealands unique biodiversity and environment.

Many of our plantings our along the Waikato river corridor and we have multiple wetland plantings.

Planting in multiple accessible locations in town enables everyone to access and experience being in native forest.

We collect all pots from our planting days to be reused. We have also developed a waste minimisation plan for Greening Taupō Day.

By planting native trees in both urban and erosion prone areas as well as locations decimated by Cyclone Gabrielle it helps to strengthen resilience and enables us to adapt our environment to the changing climate. Oh yes and we plant lots of trees!

Planting a variety of native trees in conjunction with predator control work enables native biodiversity to flourish. Helping us to bring back the birds….. and the reptiles and the insects.

Partnerships and collaboration are the foundation of our work.

Why are they important? The SDGs show us that a sustainable future is possible, both here in New Zealand and across the world. At Greening Taupō we value and want to improve our local environment, connecting more people to nature as well as building our community. We love that our work helps to contribute to building a sustainable future. If you want to find out more information on the Sustainable Development Goals click here.

Sarah Carter