[As published in September/October BayBuzz magazine.]

What are environmentalists voting for?

BayBuzz asked HB’s leading environmental advocates what commitments they would like to see from our local body candidates.

Biodiversity Hawke’s Bay
Bruce Wills, Chair

I want to hear candidates speak with clarity and conviction about the role of councils in championing biodiversity and environmental wellbeing – not as a “nice-to-have,” but as a core responsibility. With central government shifting priorities, it’s more important than ever for councils to hold the line and recognise that thriving ecosystems underpin healthy communities, climate resilience, and economic vitality. 

Crucially, councils can’t do this work alone. The heavy lifting including restoring wetlands, planting stream banks, saving endangered species, is being done by community groups and volunteers who bring heart, skill, and deep local connection. These groups are stretched thin. I want candidates who understand that funding these efforts isn’t charity, it’s investment. Genuine partnership means resourcing people on the ground, reducing administrative barriers, and backing organisations that know their communities best. 

Candidates should be ready to put forward practical, achievable policies within their control, ones that embed biodiversity into everyday decision-making. That could include biodiversity-friendly urban planning rules, direct support for landowners wanting to plant natives, green infrastructure in car parks and public spaces, and climate-adaptive planting across council reserves. These actions are budget-conscious, realistic, and signal a shift away from reactive fixes toward regenerative, future-proof thinking. 

The environmental challenges we face are urgent and community groups are already doing the work. Biodiversity isn’t a checklist item or side issue. It needs real support, long-term thinking, and leaders who see ecosystems as part of our region’s future. 

Ask your local candidate: How will you sustain biodiversity outcomes and support the people making them happen? 

Forest & Bird Hawke’s Bay
Napier, Hastings-Havelock North and CHB branches

A healthy natural built environment – nice to have or critical infrastructure?

Much of the discussion for the upcoming Local Body elections has centred around rates, the cost of living crisis and councils sticking to the basics. The environment has been relegated to the nice-to-have basket and this has been reflected in a pull-back in both council and central government funding in recent times. 

What is lost in these conversations though is the simple fact that our economy, our quality of life, our native plants and animals are all 100% reliant on a healthy natural built environment. Every day we are seeing the effects of climate change and biodiversity loss around the world, and unless we keep the environment front and centre of planning and decision-making, and use nature-based solutions where possible, we run the risk of kicking the can down the road and leaving the clean-up job to future generations. 

In Te Matau a Māui/Hawke’s Bay there are so many issues in the environment and within native species that our branches are faced with helping to protect – it can seem very daunting at times. From protecting shingle beaches and the bird species that rely on them, to caring for our waterways so they are clean enough to swim in (and clean enough for native fish to thrive within), and being very careful how we manage our limited water resource so it doesn’t cause further environmental degradation. 

We will ask candidates about the above issues in the forums we’re hosting in the lead up to the Local Body Elections. (See local Forest & Bird websites for details).

For now though, we’re interested in the attitude/priority of candidates, and our question to them is simple: Do you agree the environment should be front and centre of planning and decision-making undertaken by the council you are hoping to represent? 

The answer to that question should help voters to decide who to support for the upcoming Local Body elections.

Sustainable Hawke’s Bay
Sam Paterson, Acting GM

Hawke’s Bay, like much of New Zealand, is facing a myriad of challenges for both our people and our environment. From the cost-of-living crisis to ecosystems pushed to the brink, a forever-abundance of waste, ever-worsening climate change and cold, damp homes causing sickness. 

Yet in Hawke’s Bay we’re fortunate, with a collection of outstanding not-for-profits, working hard to create warmer, healthier homes, trudging through mud to protect our ecosystems, and collaborating to keep waste out of landfill. These organisations cannot rely on large tax/rate takes, they cannot rely on increasing debt levels, they instead focus on working closely with one-another to deliver impact as cost-efficiently as possible.

These organisations are used to day-to-day cost-cutting measures, as it’s essential to their survival. They’re used to establishing partnerships with businesses to achieve impact, as seen with the recent Sustainable Hawke’s Bay – Meridian Energy partnership that’s creating warmer homes for those in most need. They’re used to collaborating with one another to co-deliver projects that make a real difference. And they’re used to a laser focus on impact, as without this their funding would quickly dry up. In many ways, they’re everything that we should be expecting them to be.

So, what we want to hear from candidates is fairly simple. 

When you look at delivering efficiencies within councils, make sure all options are on the table, including collaborating with not-for-profits that work efficiently every day. Identify those organisations that have proven delivery capabilities and consider investing in them. They’re in the business of creating impact, they’re in the business of savings dollars, they’re in the business of collaborating. 

And they’re ready to support councils if you’re open to working with them. Are you? What specific ideas can you offer about greater collaboration with HB’s not-for-profits?

Green Party
Hawke’s Bay Te Matau a Māui branch

Hawke’s Bay-Te Matau a Māui Greens and those aligned with our values will be listening out for candidates who make nature and community central to our region’s decisions. What future will our children/grandchildren inherit? Will our moko be able to swim in our rivers and know the sound of frogs? Will families be able to cycle safely around vibrant communities where they live and work?

We need values-driven community and environmentally focused councillors at every table. Candidates who understand the connections between infrastructure and the impacts of our rapidly changing climate.

We will listen out for ideas from candidates about increasing community participation in decisions about our region. Do candidates support best practice consultation processes along with modern democratic methods such as citizens’ assemblies, participatory budgeting and online tools?

Do candidates support Māori wards? How can we embody a Te Tiriti partnership in local government? 

Our need for secure, healthy, affordable homes must not compromise thriving eco-systems and sustainable food production. We will look for candidates who understand the need to plan for denser housing with more public green spaces, active and public transport options, ways to enable community groups to develop co-housing and papakāinga, and more state/council housing.

Can candidates discuss farming methods and water use that are sustainable for Hawke’s Bay? How are our natural resources allocated? Who benefits? Could we better conserve what we have? Are proposals for water storage dams putting ratepayers at risk of having to foot hefty bills? 

We will be sceptical of candidates promising rates cuts. Are they buying votes? Instead, we are looking for innovative solutions that won’t require new funding. And ideas for alternative funding models. 

Finally, while valuing experience, we also want to make space for emerging leaders and new ideas. Ideas that put nature and community at the centre.

Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated

Council candidates need to turn values into action, and Ngāti Kahungunu expects nothing less than genuine, co-governed and co-managed outcomes for our whenua, taiao, and people. 

Commitment to genuine partnership: We expect clear support for Te Tiriti o Waitangi as a foundation for decision-making. Partnership must go beyond consultation and be founded on mutual respect, free, prior and informed consent, cultural understanding, and long-term relationship-building. We expect co-design with iwi and hapū, not “tick-box” approaches. Candidates must also support Māori representation, including Māori wards. 

Taiao justice and long-term thinking: Council leaders must respect the mana and mauri of the taiao and support intergenerational wellbeing. We want strong stances on restoring waterways and the aquifer, clawing back over-allocation and halting over-abstraction, and protecting whenua Māori from harmful development. Climate action must prioritise those most affected and champion Māori-led solutions – including green infrastructure, circular economies, and working with nature rather than against it. We expect governors who listen to our experts. 

Respect for Iwi and Hapū aspirations: Do the homework. Candidates should engage with and support iwi and hapū environmental strategies and aspirations. That includes backing iwi-led monitoring, data sovereignty, and local plans that reflect our vision for land, water, and people. 

Support for Tikanga and Mātauranga Māori: Mātauranga Māori must shape local policy, planning, and practice. Councils should elevate te reo Māori in public spaces and fund kaupapa Māori projects in housing, health, and sustainability. 

Support for Iwi-led development: We want enabling policies for iwi-led economic development, papakāinga housing, rangatahi leadership, education, and employment – all aligned with tikanga and long-term sustainability.

Wise Water Use Hawke’s Bay
Trevor Le Lievre

The key concern for Wise Water Use Hawke’s Bay is the health of our shared water resource. This responsibility falls to our Regional Council. Unfortunately, past Councils have lost sight of their environmental mandate in favour of economic priorities. We believe we can achieve both with smarter water use. 

In Central Hawke’s Bay historic over-allocation has left our aquifers and rivers depleted and suffering. A publicly subsidised $1 billion industrial-scale mega-dam would lock in unsustainable water use practices, increase consumption and cause further environmental degradation. It also fails to address the real issue: not water supply, but how we currently use our water. A 2023 Council Report highlights that CHB has the highest water use for the lowest economic return per capita in Hawke’s Bay.

In the Heretaunga catchment the same issue of over-allocation exists. We acknowledge the Regional Council for initiating the TANK consultation process in 2012, involving community groups, water-users, and Iwi. This process led to a recommendation to reduce allocated water consents from 180mm to 90mm – the amount used on average – and reflects an understanding that land use must match environmental capacity.

Recently, the Council committed $3.2 million to investigating a dam on a tributary of the Ngāruroro River. To assess this proposal’s merits requires full transparency by publicly releasing feasibility work as it is completed. 

Questions for all aspiring Regional Councillors, will you commit to:

1. Including environmental groups on all water related panels?

2. Promoting on-farm water storage paid for by individual businesses? 

3. Not spending one more cent of ratepayers’ money on either the Ruataniwha dam v.2, or the Ngāruroro dam, including not paying for so-called ‘environmental flows’?

4. Reviewing and reallocating consents in the Ruataniwha catchment based on highest economic return and most environmentally sustainable use?

5. Investigating and incentivising water demand reduction initiatives in both catchments, including land use practices which operate within environmental limits?

6. Ensuring full transparency around the Ngāruroro dam by releasing the business case and all future feasibility work as it is completed? 

Ahuriri Estuary Protection Society
Angie Denby, Chairperson

Our councillors need to have the vision to protect and restore our natural places for the benefit of generations to come. 

Our local councils have environmental policies, procedures, and Bylaws in place to protect, restore and nourish our environment. 

We need to vote for councillors who we know will back these values, have a big picture understanding of how to include the well-being of our natural habitats and ecosystems in all decision-making, and who will continue the good environmental work that has been developing over recent years. 

The type of councillor our group says we need is one that:

• makes decisions that consider care for the environment and the health of our natural biodiversity for every issue.

• makes the time and has the inclination to research widely for solutions to issues, particularly utilizing nature-based solutions.

• recognizes and values local volunteers for their contribution to environmental activities – a significant and cheap workforce – and supports volunteers to engage with and inspire the wider community.

• understands the value of the council Bylaws that protect native fauna and flora, and ensures these Bylaws are ‘alive’, monitored, and enforced.

We believe that amongst the basic council responsibilities of water –drinking, stormwater, and wastewater – and waste management and recycling, care for the environment is paramount.

We want the councils to continue to consult with the community on local issues.

We want councillors who understand that the health of our special natural places is one of the bottom lines of sound economics.