Te Arawa Para Kore waste minimisation leader Harina Rupapera at Rotorua Boys' High School, doing a waste audit in early March. Photo / Stephen Parker
Te Arawa Para Kore waste minimisation leader Harina Rupapera at Rotorua Boys' High School, doing a waste audit in early March. Photo / Stephen Parker
Our environment has constantly made headlines since Budget 2019 - from the School Strikes for Climate Change to the Australian bushfires.
In Budget 2020, Te Arawa Para Kore waste minimisation leader Harina Rupapera would like to see increased funding for environmental education in schools.
"Our children will grow up implementingclimate change response plans so they need to be learning about that in their curriculum."
Local governments and environmental care groups also needed more financial support for "zero waste" alternatives and infrastructure, to reduce our waste going to landfills, she said.
"People forget the impact their waste has on Papatūānuku [the land]."
Pest control funding needed to be a priority, Forest & Bird's central North Island manager Dr Rebecca Stirnemann said, and Rotorua's growing wallaby problem showed why.
Forest & Bird's central North Island manager, Dr Rebecca Stirnemann. Photo / Supplied
Last year the Rotorua Daily Post reported wallaby numbers were "dangerously high" in the district and threatening new areas.
"We can still work to contain and then get rid of them, otherwise they're going to take over the North Island and the South Island."
"It's cost-effective to do the action now," she said, rather than see the forestry industry, farmers, the Department of Conservation and others pay "a much bigger" price.
"From an economic perspective we need to do it now ... then there's also the environmental impact of these species that nibble out our grass but also our native forests from the bottom. That then worsens soil erosion and harms our waterways as well."
Lakes Water Quality Society chairman John Gifford said the society had been working closely with councils, the Te Arawa Lakes Trust and the Department of Conservation on "lake catchment enhancement" proposals leading up to Budget 2020.
Lakes Water Quality Society chairman John Gifford. Photo / File
The proposed work includes weed management and restoring biodiversity in the Rotorua lakes.
Gifford said the proposals had been pitched to Government for funding to help lift employment rates in the Rotorua area, post Covid-19.
"Hopefully the Government will back this work," he said.
