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Archives For 30/11/1999

Young New Zealanders speak out for biodiversity

 —  14/12/2010

When I was studying marketing at university one of my lecturers said, “if you want to communicate a message simply and effectively, ask a young person what they would say”. I was reminded of that as I watched this year’s winning entries for The Outlook for Someday – sustainability film challenge for young people. The winners’ ability to get their messages across in simple but creative ways is really inspiring.

DOC sponsored a special biodiversity award for The Outlook for Someday challenge and at a ceremony in November two teams from Newmarket Primary School in Auckland were announced as the joint winners of that award.

One of the winning films is ‘The Kaitiaki Children and the Birds’. It’s about a group of young people who protect birds and share a message that we can all become nature’s guardians. The judges said the film uses “a wonderful and creative mix of media.”

Newmarket Primary School students and makers of The Kaitiaki Children and the Birds, with Auckland Mayor Len Brown and Hon Dr Jonathan Coleman.

Newmarket Primary School students and makers of The Kaitiaki Children and the Birds, with Auckland Mayor Len Brown and Hon Dr Jonathan Coleman.

Watch The Kaitiaki Children and the Birds.

The other winning film, ‘Sam the Superworm’ is about saving our food and tells the story of how everyone, including a small stripy worm, can help protect nature. The judges said this film is “a fabulous tale about taking action on behalf of biodiversity in an urban environment.”

Newmarket Primary School students and makers of Sam the Superworm collect their award

Newmarket Primary School students and makers of Sam the Superworm collect their award

Watch Sam the Superworm.

The winning films are showing on TVNZ 6 each night this week (from 13-17 December) on Freeview or TiVo channel 6, and SKY or Telstra channel 16. Each programme will be shown at 6:30pm and again at 8:30pm.

To enter The Outlook for Someday challenge, young New Zealanders have to make a sustainability-related film that’s up to 5 minutes long, using any camera. People can enter as teams or individuals.

Entries for the film challenge came from all over New Zealand and were made by individuals and teams from primary, intermediate and secondary schools as well as tertiary institutions.

Well done to everyone who competed in this year’s film challenge and I’m sure next year’s entries will be  just as strong.

In International, Sustainability
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Words on a Wing’s kākāpō steals the show!

 —  21/10/2010

Auckland’s giant kākāpō – named Kiri te Kākāpō by Verran Primary School – has become a star attraction at the 10th meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) which began in Japan this week.

 

Kiri te Kākāpō sporting her lovely plumage.

Auckland's giant kākāpō 'Kiri te Kākāpō' sporting her lovely plumage of conservation messages

 

Our man in Nagoya Andrew Bignell (DOC’s International Relations manager and head of the NZ government delegation at the Japanese meeting), reports that even while the team was unpacking the bird people were stopping to talk and take photographs!

“Having the kākāpō here has been a wonderful start and has given a morale boost to the delegation to see a bit of home displayed in such a prominent position.”

 

Curious onlookers stop to check out Kiri te Kākāpō in Japan.

Curious onlookers stop to check out Kiri te Kākāpō at DOC's display at the 10th meeting of the CBD in Japan

 

Kiri and her plumage of messages is the heart of DOC’s display at the CBD’s fair showing the best examples from around the world of International Year of Biodiversity education and awareness activities.

On Thursday, the bird will take centre stage at a special ceremony in which the CBD’s executive secretary Dr Ahmed Djoghlaf will accept a selection of the more the 20,000 messages New Zealanders have composed.

Andrew will present Dr Djoghlaf with a beautiful kākāpō poster made for the Words on a Wing action by year 3 and 4 pupils from Auckland’s Albany Primary School.

How did a flightless parrot make it all the way to Japan?

Happily the wonderful team at Air NZ came to the rescue. They organised for Kiri to arrive in Nagoya in good time and in excellent nick. They’ll also fly her home again when the meeting finishes on the 29th.

 

The team at Air New Zealand pose with Kiri te Kākāpō.

The team at Air New Zealand form a scrum with Kiri te Kākāpō as a farewell before she sets off on her big OE

 

 

Kiri te Kākāpō is all wrapped up and loaded into the cargo hold for her flight to Japan.

Kiri te Kākāpō is all wrapped up and loaded into the cargo hold for her flight to Japan

 

While you’re still thinking about biodiversity, check out the song Verran Primary School wrote for Kiri.

Te Papa’s naming competition for the Wellington kākāpō

And the winner is…  “Mātārere” which means forerunner/harbinger. The winning entry came from a kākāpo fan in Norway who faxed her entry to Te Papa. Thanks to our brainy bird experts at ZEALANDIA, Te Papa, and DOC for serving as judges.

The winner of the competition was initially going to win an annual family pass to ZEALANDIA, but because she lives a little too far away to get to enjoy that prize she’ll receive a bag of goodies from Te Papa instead.

Find out more

Words on a Wing and the giant kākāpō project

Te Papa’s naming competition

In International, Native animals, Old Conservation Week posts ,
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Wingin’ it for conservation

Sirocco the Spokesbird —  10/08/2010

Be on the look-out for some over-sized kākāpō heading your way. Since the International Day of Biodiversity last May, DOC’s two steel-mesh kākāpō have been travelling around gathering conservation messages from people all over New Zealand. That’s a good thing since they were both looking a little down on their luck until their feather messages started appearing. Now they are sporting plumage that any kākāpō would be proud of.

Kids at Miramar North School recently had a special visitor. Photo courtesy Citylife Newspapers.

Kids at Miramar North School recently had a special visitor. Photo courtesy Citylife Newspapers.

I’m pretty stoked on the messages that are being put on the two kākāpō too. My favourite so far is “kiss a kākāpō”, but don’t worry people are looking out for all us native plants and animals…like the person who wrote “native bats need protection too”.

During Conservation Week all those special feathers are going to be collected by my friends at DOC and then sent to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya, Japan so that world leaders can hear how Kiwi feel about their environment.

Check out Words on a Wing to learn how you can have your say whether one of the over-sized green kākāpō comes to your town or not. DOC staff have been getting messages from people all over the country and they’re putting every one of those feathers on the two kākāpō.

What’s in a name?

A lot if you’re a big kākāpō. So, if you’re in Wellington in the next couple of weeks go visit one of the kākāpō at Te Papa’s Nature Space. Add a feather message and enter the kākāpō naming competition to help the poor bugger get a proper name.

Some pretty cool bird experts like my mate Deidre from DOC’s kākāpō recovery programme will be choosing the winner of the naming competition. The competition winner receives an annual pass for them and their family to ZEALANDIA. Not only that, but I’ll be announcing the winning name!

Links

Kākāpō

Words on a Wing

Nature Space

ZEALANDIA

In International, Old Conservation Week posts, Sirocco the kakapo
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Words on a Wing – International Day of Biodiversity

 —  31/05/2010

 

Hannah Sinclair, painted by BodyFX as a kakapo for the event.

Hannah Sinclair, painted by BodyFX as a kakapo for the event.

Words on a Wing was launched at the Wellington Zoo and Auckland Museum on 22 May 2010 (International Day of Biodiversity). Words on a Wing is something we thought up here at DOC, featuring two giant steel and mesh kakapo and 20,000 cardboard feathers. Over the coming months as the birds go on tour, students all around the country will have the opportunity to write messages on the feathers which will be used to cover the kakapo from beak to toe. The messages will then be collected and taken to Japan in October, for the Convention on Biological Diversity’s 10th Conference of the Parties (COP) meeting.

Children attach cardboard feathers to the giant kakapo.

Children attach cardboard feathers to the giant kakapo.

At the Wellington event an estimated 200 people celebrated the launch, which featured music by drum troupe Nimba, face painting by Body FX and comedy by the Improvisors. Felicity Lawrence, General Manager – People and Organisation Development, launched Words on a Wing with a speech during the event. Also, we didn’t pull this together by ourselves. WWF-New Zealand, Forest & Bird, and Wellington Zoo were our partners in this event. Thanks guys!

In International, Wellington/Kapiti
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