The Future Becomes Clearer for Our Environment

The Future Becomes Clearer for Our Environment

Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga (NPM) welcomes the recent passage of the new Environmental Reporting Act 2015 through Parliament. This new law will now ensure regular and independent reporting on the state of our environment as we move forward into the future.

Statistics New Zealand and the Ministry for the Environment are jointly tasked with the responsibility to produce and publish reports, recognising the critical need to understand the current state of our environment and the ongoing changes affecting it.

NPM particularly commends the Ministers and their Ministries for recognising that there are two world views in New Zealand, and explicitly empowering te ao Māori alongside te ao Pākehā in the Act.

For over a decade NPM researchers have articulated Māori ways of understanding impacts to the environment, and sought recognition for those in local, regional and national decision-making and management fora. The Environmental Reporting Act 2015, by unequivocally including te ao Māori, is the governments emphatic response to the years of work of Māori researchers across multiple institutions from around the country.

Dr Dan Hikuroa, Research Director at Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga says “this marks a fundamental positive shift in Government views and its valuing of te ao Māori and mātauranga Māori. In particular these reports will now include generations of mātauranga, comprising detailed ecological and environmental observations and predictions, all from the perspective of a Māori world view”.

“We offer our congratulations to all those involved and our future support to Statistics New Zealand and the Ministry for the Environment as they undertake their reporting responsibilities”.

Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga (NPM) is a Centre of Research Excellence comprising 16 research partners (participating research entities) hosted at the University of Auckland and conducting research of relevance to Māori communities. Our goal is to realise the creative and economic potential of Māori, transform communities and conduct research of relevance that will bring about positive change. Visit www.maramatanga.ac.nz

ENDS

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