Cultural and biodiversity from Maori and scientitific perspectives

May 18th
May 18th was a very busy day for us as a group and interestingly it was my birthday. We traveled back to Wellington from Paekakariki Park to listen to a Maori Member of Parliament, Hon. Rahui Katene. We also took a tour of the ‘BEEHIVE’, the executive building which is equivalent to the White House in Washington DC, except that the prime minister does not live there. Rahui gave a general overview of the history of the Maori people as well as their struggle for equal representation in the local and national governments. She also talked about Maori perspective on the environment as being more of a spiritual connection to the land and sustainability for self-renewal. She said the Maori agree with the Green Peace. The Maori MP talk was very interesting. It provided us the opportunity to experience the Maori culture and to get a sense of how involved they are locally and nationally and how much impact their collective voices are having on the political systems.
There have been great improvements in diversity and representations in government, especially in Parliament. It was interesting to learn that there was no separation between church and state. New Zealand also does not have a written constitution. Quite surprising! What was a little confusing for me though was about the role of the Queen of England in the New Zealand Government. Even though neither the Queen nor any member of the royal family can legally enter into the parliament building, she has the authority to dissolve the government.

Our next activities were at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. A panel of four persons representing the Ministries for the Environment, economics, Energy and Agriculture met with us at the Foreign Ministry. New Zealand’s senior environment lead negotiator for the Kyoto Protocol Stephanie Lee, outlined New Zealand’s approach to climate change. According to Stephanie, New Zealand hopes to maintain a carbon dioxide level under 450 PPM by 2020 or reduce to the 1990 levels. She was very optimistic about New Zealand’s approach to reducing its carbon footprint. But I’m curious to see how they would get other major environmental polluters to cooperate and be more involved. Stephanie said the climate change is a global problem that requires a global fix. We also learned that 65% of New Zealand’s electricity comes from renewable energy sources including wind, solar, hydro and geothermal.
According to the representative from the ministry of agriculture, New Zealand’s biggest emission of carbon dioxide comes from cattles and sheep. Cows emit a lot of methane into the atmosphere.

May 21st
We traveled to Tongariro National Park to experience the volcanic scenes and take a hike up to the falls. It snowed overnight and the trails were a little slippery. We walked in large groups and took tons of pictures as we went along while enjoying the beautiful view of the mountains. It was a beautiful terrain with a lot of different plant species. It was a once in a lifetime experience for me because most of the plant species can only be found in New Zealand.
Rotorua is the most environmentally friendly place I have ever been. It was a great experience to cook using steam from geothermal heat. All over the city we saw hot springs bubbling up from beneath the earth. There were hot springs in most street corners and they seem normal to the local residents but a completely new experience for us. Geothermal activities were the most amazing experience for me. To see springs of mud boiling like a pot of hot soup was just unbelievable.

May 22nd.
Today was incredibly fun and most successful in learning about the Maori culture of New Zealand. We visited a research centre, called SCION and learned about biodiversity in timber production, the management system, and the Maori approach to environmental sustainability. There was also a presentation on genetically modified Pinus radiata plants by Christian Walter, one of the researchers at the SCION institute. It was interesting to learn that there is no evidence of negative impacts of genetically modified plant on insects. He said that insects adapt and grow well in areas where there are GMOs.