Tairāwhiti forestry concerns taken to UN

Renee Raroa, speaking as a representative of Mana Taiao Tairāwhiti, has presented the group’s concerns at a meeting of the United Nations in New York. 

Speaking at the 22nd Session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Ms Raroa, who grew up in Rangitukia, addressed the forum with an overview of the history of land use in Tairāwhiti.

“In recent years, our territories have been repeatedly devastated by cyclones and floods, choking our waterways and coastlines with thick sediment and woody debris from clearfell plantation harvests. Over a century of deforestation has degraded our land, river, and marine systems; caused irreversible landscape changes, interrupted our climate cycles, and destabilised the balance between Ranginui, our sacred Sky father, and Papatūāku, Earth Mother.

Renee Raroa

Read Mana Taiao Tairāwhiti’s full press release here.