How do we re-build our local Hawke’s Bay communities so that they are climate-ready and resilient for future generations?
Sounds like a big question but the Hawke’s Bay Environment Centre, who has played a key role in helping communities in the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle, says we need to start talking about the future. And they are happy to take a lead in facilitating discussions as a voice for te taiao, our environment.Centre Manager Emma Horgan-Heke says there is a need for the community to understand what the future is truly looking like. “We need to acknowledge this is climate change,” she says. “Cyclone Gabrielle wasn’t a one in 500-year storm, this is going to happen more frequently, so we are calling for big changes. We can’t just go back to the way we were.”
Emma is concerned that Councils and other entities keep the environment in focus as they plan for the future.
“Will we consider ecological boundaries and carbon emissions’ profiles when we re-build? Are we looking at a holistic approach that is social, equitable, and environmental,” she asks.
“A lot of money will come into Hawke’s Bay for re-building and we need to consider all of the above.”
The Environment Centre would like to be at the table when Councils meet to discuss Hawke’s Bay’s future and the big issues such as the way we re-build for future generations aware of disasters and sea level rise, and the need in some areas for managed retreat.
Emma has a housing background and prior to her current role led the development of Waingaku Village in Flaxmere. She says, “We want councils and other entities to do the right thing, but we also want to work with the community to help them shape what they want and learn how to be resilient for future generations.”
This could include reimagining ‘transition’ towns that have renewable energy, water abundance and local food systems. (See at the end of this article events the Environment Centre is planning to help start conversations.)
The Centre is setting up a forum for environmental groups across Hawke’s Bay to get together and they want to lead discussions with other groups on creating a food security and resilience plan for the region.
“You look at how much food was destroyed in the Cyclone, how bare our supermarket shelves are, and how dependent we are on outside food coming in … we have some serious issues about food that need to be addressed. So, we want to bring everyone together with their pockets of expertise and see if we can collectively do something. “
When Cyclone Gabrielle hit Hawke’s Bay many people approached the Environment Centre either wanting help or wanting to volunteer. In two weeks, the Centre’s list of volunteers leapt from 80 to 280 and they had more than 142,000 people contact them via social media from all over the world, with volunteers coming from places as far away as Wellington, Kerikeri and the Coromandel.
At the same time, the Centre connected with 32 communities including marae, rural communities, RSE workers and Pacifica communities. At a large warehouse in Karamu Road, they collected, sorted and/or repurposed, and delivered a huge range of household goods, clothes and food. They even paid from Give A Little donations for helicopters to deliver food and goods to stranded rural communities. Today they are continuing to work with community groups to deliver 2–3,000 meals a day.
“It’s been amazing,” says Emma. “There is now a broader audience involved with the Environment Centre and we’ve grown our communities, which will be good when we start our discussions. We’ve also created some good systems and processes so when disaster comes along we can pick up on that …we know how to do it.
“We know this won’t be the last [disaster],” she warns, “and we need to be ready to respond and be here for our whānau and community to rebuild in a resilient way.
“By maintaining strong, resilient, and regenerative communities and spaces we can ensure healthy and sustainable lives for all our whanau.
“Our focus is community resilience, environment restoration and climate action.”
Here is the first of many movies and discussion events coming up
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The flood has highlighted areas of concern in the environment. It has to be said that 150 years of deforestation, and draining of wetlands ( both are natural sinkholes for surplus rainwater), for the purposes of monoculture pastoral farming , are contributing factors. Pinus Radiata trees are shallow rooted, therefore do not form networks in the ground to hold the land in place, and the slash from this industry could be put to better use, if people were allowed to utilize it for firewood for the long Hawkes Bay winters. There is nothing wrong with planting the right exotic trees in the right places, (alongside native species too). Every paddock on every farm should have a tree, such as Gleditsia, that allows grass to grow right up to it’s trunk, provides shelter (and can be harvested as stock feed in a drought), provides shade for livestock, and has a deep tap root . A change in the way farmland is managed is essential now, and in the long term. Trees on all farms are a necessary part of this change. Diversification is what we see in nature. Monoculture grass growing is a fatal ecological mistake, brought by early settlers here, and the cause of environmental problems back in Europe now, and, in fact, right across the world, where it has been practiced for a few hundred years. Deforestatiin of our planet has been going on for thousands of years !!. The destruction of natural environments has affected the water tables and world wind and temperature patterns more than any other single factor of climate change. It’s time to wake up to these facts and develop better land use practices.