Greenprinting Whakatane

The flooding in Edgecumbe truly brought home these challenges which a warming world brings. File photo.

‘Where the people lead, the leaders will follow' that's the motto behind Tuesday's 'Greenprint for Whakatane” get-together.

The workshop is a chance to talk about making Whakatane a more sustainable, resilient and regenerative place to live.

Environmental sustainability has come into sharp focus for the Whakatane District over the past few years.

During the first phase of the ‘Whakatane Ki Mua' community engagement, lots of people highlighted how Whakatane's natural setting and access to the outdoors were of extreme importance to them.

As a community vulnerable to climate change, people called for action on climate change and for more sustainable ways of living. The flooding in Edgecumbe truly brought home these challenges which a warming world brings.

It's not just storms that challenge the district, but rising sea levels also increases the need to rethink infrastructure, including where to draw town water from.

Warming weather patterns are also helping spread new invasive species and horticultural diseases and there is the growing debate around water quality and use, soil degradation and overuse of even renewable resources such as fish stocks. 'I think sometimes people just don't want to think about this stuff because it all seems too hard. There this sense of ‘well what can we do about that?'” says Whakatane District Councillor Nandor Tanczos.

'But in reality, it is completely in our power to change how we do things as a community. There are already loads of people doing really amazing things right here in the Whakatane District.

'To build on that, it helps to get together, to talk about it collectively, to share with and inspire each other, and to see the little bits that each of us is doing as part of the bigger picture of change.”

That is what Tuesday's 'Greenprint for Whakatane” is all about. It's not about getting a lecture on how bad things are. Nor is it about having to take on more jobs. It's about seeing that there is a larger pattern to our individual actions.

The Whakatane District Council has already committed to a climate change action plan and to developing a comprehensive Sustainability Strategy.

As part of the Whakatane Ki Mua community engagement, this is an opportunity for people to shape what that looks like, and to develop community initiatives in collaboration with it.

Sustainability is part of it – creating systems that can maintain themselves indefinitely, but it is also about resilience in an increasingly disruptive environment and the ability to bounce back from shocks. It is also about being regenerative.

The event will be from 7 – 9pm on Tuesday February 20 at the EastBay REAP offices on Pyne Street. The evening will include inspiring speakers and a chance to engage and be part of the vision.

'This isn't about technical jargon and a carbon trading scheme. This is about how we as a community want our transport infrastructure, our energy generation systems, our food, our waste/resource recovery and our local economy to meet the challenges we face and help us thrive as a community,” says Nandor.

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