title: Bringing nature back into cities: urban land environments, indigenous cover and urban restoration

authors: Clarkson, Bruce D.

subjects: New Zealand

abstract: 1. The restoration of urban ecosystems is an increasingly important strategy to maintain and enhance indigenous biodiversity as well as reconnecting people to the environment. High levels of endemism, the sensitivity of species that have evolved without humans, and the invasion of exotic species have all contributed to severe depletion of indigenous biodiversity in New Zealand. In this work, we analysed national patterns of urban biodiversity in New Zealand and the contribution that urban restoration can make to maximising and enhancing indigenous biodiversity. 
2. We analysed data from two national databases in relation to the 20 largest New Zealand cities. We quantified existing indigenous biodiversity within cities, both within the core built up matrix and in centroid buffer zones of 5, 10 and 20 km around this urban centre. We analysed the type and frequency of land environments underlying cities as indicators of the range of native ecosystems that are (or can potentially be) represented within the broader environmental profile of New Zealand. We identified acutely threatened land environments that are represented within urban and periurban areas and the potential role of cities in enhancing biodiversity from these land environments. 
3. New Zealand cities are highly variable in both landform and level of indigenous resource. Thirteen of 20 major land environments in New Zealand are represented in cities, and nearly three-quarters of all acutely threatened land environments are represented within 20 km of city cores nationally. Indigenous land cover is low within urban cores, with less than 2% on average remaining, and fragmentation is high. However, indigenous cover increases to more than 10% on average in the periurban zone, and the size of indigenous remnants also increases. The number of remaining indigenous landcover types also increases from only 5 types within the urban centre, to 14 types within 20 km of the inner urban cores. 
4. In New Zealand, ecosystem restoration alone is not enough to prevent biodiversity loss from urban environments, with remnant indigenous cover in the urban core too small (and currently too degraded) to support biodiversity long-term. For some cities, indigenous cover in the periurban zone is also extremely low. This has significant ramifications for the threatened lowland and coastal environments that are most commonly represented in cities. Reconstruction of ecosystems is required to achieve a target of 10% indigenous cover in cities: the addition of land to land banks for this purpose is crucial. Future planning that protects indigenous remnants within the periurban zone is critical to the survival of many species within urban areas, mitigating the homogenisation and depletion of indigenous flora and fauna typical of urbanisation. A national urban biodiversity plan would help city councils address biodiversity issues beyond a local and regional focus, while encouraging predominantly local solutions to restoration challenges, based on the highly variable land environments, ecosystems and patch connectivity present within different urban areas.

text: Bringing nature back into cities: urban land environments, indigenous cover and urban restoration 1. The restoration of urban ecosystems is an increasingly important strategy to maintain and enhance indigenous biodiversity as well as reconnecting people to the environment. High levels of endemism, the sensitivity of species that have evolved without humans, and the invasion of exotic species have all contributed to severe depletion of indigenous biodiversity in New Zealand. In this work, we analysed national patterns of urban biodiversity in New Zealand and the contribution that urban restoration can make to maximising and enhancing indigenous biodiversity. 
2. We analysed data from two national databases in relation to the 20 largest New Zealand cities. We quantified existing indigenous biodiversity within cities, both within the core built up matrix and in centroid buffer zones of 5, 10 and 20 km around this urban centre. We analysed the type and frequency of land environments underlying cities as indicators of the range of native ecosystems that are (or can potentially be) represented within the broader environmental profile of New Zealand. We identified acutely threatened land environments that are represented within urban and periurban areas and the potential role of cities in enhancing biodiversity from these land environments. 
3. New Zealand cities are highly variable in both landform and level of indigenous resource. Thirteen of 20 major land environments in New Zealand are represented in cities, and nearly three-quarters of all acutely threatened land environments are represented within 20 km of city cores nationally. Indigenous land cover is low within urban cores, with less than 2% on average remaining, and fragmentation is high. However, indigenous cover increases to more than 10% on average in the periurban zone, and the size of indigenous remnants also increases. The number of remaining indigenous landcover types also increases from only 5 types within the urban centre, to 14 types within 20 km of the inner urban cores. 
4. In New Zealand, ecosystem restoration alone is not enough to prevent biodiversity loss from urban environments, with remnant indigenous cover in the urban core too small (and currently too degraded) to support biodiversity long-term. For some cities, indigenous cover in the periurban zone is also extremely low. This has significant ramifications for the threatened lowland and coastal environments that are most commonly represented in cities. Reconstruction of ecosystems is required to achieve a target of 10% indigenous cover in cities: the addition of land to land banks for this purpose is crucial. Future planning that protects indigenous remnants within the periurban zone is critical to the survival of many species within urban areas, mitigating the homogenisation and depletion of indigenous flora and fauna typical of urbanisation. A national urban biodiversity plan would help city councils address biodiversity issues beyond a local and regional focus, while encouraging predominantly local solutions to restoration challenges, based on the highly variable land environments, ecosystems and patch connectivity present within different urban areas.

year: 2007

title: The battery company, formed to operate the Firth and Clark Battery at Waiorongomai

authors: Hart, Philip

abstract: The Battery Company was a private one, and although there were hints that other shareholders existed, only Josiah Clifton Firth and James McCosh Clark were known to be its owners. Firth was the more prominent of the two, willingly so, as he was never short of opinions and used his links with local and central government to assist his own interests in general and this company in particular.
When constructing the battery at Waiorongomai, Firth posed as a philanthropist aiming to benefit the mining community rather than himself. As the venture was potentially risky, he was praised for his initiative, but his terms for raising capital from mining companies and the charges he imposed soon led to widespread criticism. As time passed and as mining faded, he gained increasing control over the mines, acquiring interests in many of them, some of which were developed with little success.
After celebrations were held for the opening of his battery, the cold water treatment of the first crushing created distrust and suspicion. For years there were loud complaints about the high charges and how mining companies controlled by the company were being exploited simply to keep the battery operating. That so many mines were unprofitable was blamed on the company, and Firth’s policy of working mines as cheaply as possible was criticized. Because of his monopoly, miners wanted other batteries erected, and Firth was accused of discouraging this through his influence on the county council; an influence that was claimed to mean higher tramway charges through his appointing a pawn as tramway manager. 
Despite his constant praise of private enterprise and private initiative, Firth was very ready to seek financial assistance from government, with some success. Genuinely interested in new technology, his successful efforts to, first, improve the battery, and second, to sell his company’s interests to wealthy overseas capitalists were praised. He even planned to construct a low level tunnel traversing most of the field. But despite all their efforts, neither Firth nor Clark benefited financially from their company.

text: The battery company, formed to operate the Firth and Clark Battery at Waiorongomai The Battery Company was a private one, and although there were hints that other shareholders existed, only Josiah Clifton Firth and James McCosh Clark were known to be its owners. Firth was the more prominent of the two, willingly so, as he was never short of opinions and used his links with local and central government to assist his own interests in general and this company in particular.
When constructing the battery at Waiorongomai, Firth posed as a philanthropist aiming to benefit the mining community rather than himself. As the venture was potentially risky, he was praised for his initiative, but his terms for raising capital from mining companies and the charges he imposed soon led to widespread criticism. As time passed and as mining faded, he gained increasing control over the mines, acquiring interests in many of them, some of which were developed with little success.
After celebrations were held for the opening of his battery, the cold water treatment of the first crushing created distrust and suspicion. For years there were loud complaints about the high charges and how mining companies controlled by the company were being exploited simply to keep the battery operating. That so many mines were unprofitable was blamed on the company, and Firth’s policy of working mines as cheaply as possible was criticized. Because of his monopoly, miners wanted other batteries erected, and Firth was accused of discouraging this through his influence on the county council; an influence that was claimed to mean higher tramway charges through his appointing a pawn as tramway manager. 
Despite his constant praise of private enterprise and private initiative, Firth was very ready to seek financial assistance from government, with some success. Genuinely interested in new technology, his successful efforts to, first, improve the battery, and second, to sell his company’s interests to wealthy overseas capitalists were praised. He even planned to construct a low level tunnel traversing most of the field. But despite all their efforts, neither Firth nor Clark benefited financially from their company.

year: 2016

title: Echoed silencing in Te Whare/Tangata

authors: Lewis, Cassandra Louise Terauhina

subjects: Mana Wāhine

abstract: Wāhine Māori voices are suppressed due to multiple intersecting factors in Aotearoa which negatively impact our lived realities. The aim of this thesis is to foreground wāhine voice and identity within a settler colonial housing system. The current ‘housing crisis’ has been an issue of interest in academia focusing on housing insecurity, homelessness and neoliberalism. Additionally, the criminalisation of Māori has been explored by scholars to a similar extent, especially the pipelining of Māori into incarceration and precarity through policing and surveillance strategies. However, how the criminal justice system and the housing systems interact is scarcely investigated in Aotearoa, and moreover, has not been examined through a Mana wāhine theoretical framework. Mana Wāhine scholars have long critiqued colonisation and the accompanying practices, ideologies and discourses of difference that misrepresent wāhine as the ‘savage other’. How wāhine Māori are constructed through political discourse and factors leading to the silencing of wāhine are at the forefront of this inquiry and moreover, wāhine resistance, survival and aspirations while navigating a discriminatory housing system is examined.

Political and Western discourse contributes to the criminalisation and deficit framing of wāhine as the ‘undeserving poor’ and ‘criminal other’ which subsequently silences wāhine and encourages discriminatory practices. This thesis contends that the channelling of wāhine Māori into a precarious population, the criminalisation of wāhine Māori, and the colonial discourses surrounding wāhine interact together and create barriers to wāhine Māori access to housing. An analysis of housing discourse, alongside wāhine perspectives provides a counter-narrative of the lived reality and voice from wāhine who reside in a predominantly precarious and Māori populated area. The findings show cases of surveillance, discrimination, social policing and steering wāhine Māori into unhealthy living conditions, however, wāhine were also creative in their practices of resistance and survivance.

text: Echoed silencing in Te Whare/Tangata Wāhine Māori voices are suppressed due to multiple intersecting factors in Aotearoa which negatively impact our lived realities. The aim of this thesis is to foreground wāhine voice and identity within a settler colonial housing system. The current ‘housing crisis’ has been an issue of interest in academia focusing on housing insecurity, homelessness and neoliberalism. Additionally, the criminalisation of Māori has been explored by scholars to a similar extent, especially the pipelining of Māori into incarceration and precarity through policing and surveillance strategies. However, how the criminal justice system and the housing systems interact is scarcely investigated in Aotearoa, and moreover, has not been examined through a Mana wāhine theoretical framework. Mana Wāhine scholars have long critiqued colonisation and the accompanying practices, ideologies and discourses of difference that misrepresent wāhine as the ‘savage other’. How wāhine Māori are constructed through political discourse and factors leading to the silencing of wāhine are at the forefront of this inquiry and moreover, wāhine resistance, survival and aspirations while navigating a discriminatory housing system is examined.

Political and Western discourse contributes to the criminalisation and deficit framing of wāhine as the ‘undeserving poor’ and ‘criminal other’ which subsequently silences wāhine and encourages discriminatory practices. This thesis contends that the channelling of wāhine Māori into a precarious population, the criminalisation of wāhine Māori, and the colonial discourses surrounding wāhine interact together and create barriers to wāhine Māori access to housing. An analysis of housing discourse, alongside wāhine perspectives provides a counter-narrative of the lived reality and voice from wāhine who reside in a predominantly precarious and Māori populated area. The findings show cases of surveillance, discrimination, social policing and steering wāhine Māori into unhealthy living conditions, however, wāhine were also creative in their practices of resistance and survivance.

year: 2021