Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society Conference

realm of New Zealand - English, Maori, Cook Islands Maori, Niuean and Tokelauan: - Kia Ora, Kia Orana, Fakalofa Lahi Atu, Taloha Ni.  Greetings to you all. 

In particular I recognise you, Dr Peter Maddison, President, you RoyalForest and Bird Life members, ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you for the invitation to my wife Susan and I to be here this morning in Silverstream and for me to address the RoyalForest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand.

My wife Susan and I have been footsoldier members of RoyalForest and Bird and to be here in the context of our new role is a particular thrill.

The Society is New Zealand's largest national conservation organisation.  It can be said that in the 83 years of its existence, it has become an instantly recognisable part of the fabric of New Zealand. 

Its considerable membership is spread across a strong branch network of fifty plus stretching through the country.  Its activities have a broad reach including conservation projects, walks, trips, and speakers - in short, many of those things that any lover of nature enjoys so much.

It is difficult to imagine our country without a Royal Forest and Bird and one of the reasons for that can perhaps be found in the simplicity and clarity of the mission statement:  To preserve and protect the native plants and animals and natural features of New Zealand.

We are a country blessed with an abundance of nature but, there have been times of settlement in Aotearoa, where we treated our natural taonga rather shabbily.  It would be too simplistic to ascribe this inconsiderate behaviour on the part of those before us to ignorance.  I am not alone in suspecting that there were forces which knew pretty well what they were doing and just didn't care. 

One of my predecessors, Charles Bathurst Bledisloe, in a speech he gave on Arbor Day in 1934 bemoaned the fact  that there were too many people not in tune with nature.  He said in part of these people:- "Their eyes, their ears, and their noses may be perfectly normal and yet may be closed to the beauty, the melody, and the fragrance of nature, and thus they may lose what a bountiful Providence intended to be a perpetual source of interest, joyfulness and inspiration."

There were also people determined to stop devastation of our beautiful flora and fauna.  People like Captain Val Sanderson.  In the Year of the Veteran, there is a certain poignancy in the fact that a World War One veteran, a person who witnessed the ravages of war and human destruction, should become such a major influence on the conservation movement in New Zealand. 

On his return from the battlefields on the other side of the world, I have learned of Sanderson visiting Kapiti Island, and being shocked to find it overrun with cattle, goats and sheep, rather than the birdlife with which he was familiar from the days of his youth.  This prompted him to begin a campaign to see Kapiti restored to its former glory and its status as a wildlife reserve. 

The Kapiti campaign was a success to a point that Captain Sanderson, with friends and supporters, established the Native Bird Protection Society. 

Today, Forest and Bird is active on a wide range of conservation and environmental issues.  Its work includes the protection of native forests, tussock grasslands, wetlands, coastlines and marine ecosystems, energy and resource conservation, sustainable fisheries and sustainable land management.  I know of activity overseas - of work in South Pacific rainforest conservation and with the protection of Antarctica from environmental damage.

Climate change is also high on your agenda.  I will not stray too much into this issue which now has political overtones and as will be understood, a Governor-General ought not wade into waters of political debate, let alone take sides. 

What I can say on that topic, though, is that each one of us can make a difference when it comes to global warming.  Simple domestic measures like insulating homes, for example, will make a difference to the amount of poisonous substance sent into the atmosphere. 

Perhaps an important thing to think about seriously today is how we can make a difference in our own backyard.  With the emergence of the environmental movement in the late seventies and early eighties, came a slogan that was catchy and that still sounds as fresh today as it did then, that slogan being "Think Globally, Act Locally". 

May I commend the work of RoyalForest and Bird in campaigning hard to remove pests from our natural habitats.

Ladies and gentlemen, a high point of this morning is to introduce you to a new book which highlights the fate of one of our most ancient treasures, the whio or blue duck.  This book has been written by David Young and is the latest addition in the catalogue of books that he has produced over the years. 

The whio is an extremely beautiful bird, is an endangered species whose numbers have dwindled worryingly in the past 15 years in particular.  The book, of which I have had a pre-read is well written and deliciously photographed.  It has a particular resonance for Susan and I because one holiday we had in the 1990s was at Horopito between Raetihi and National Park.  There were many local attractions like SmashPalace and JD's garage.  But there was also Manganuioteau  Manganui o teao where we actually went and saw whio at dusk and Chapter Two is such a wonderful collection of that thrill.

David Young's book, which has been published by another campaigner for the environment, Craig Potton, and is a timely contribution in the fight to save the whio. 

I want to thank all the people involved in the production of the book and to undertake the official launching of  "Whio - Saving New Zealand's Blue Duck".

Kia ora, kia kaha, tena koutou katoa.