Kia ora
Welcome to “The Change Makers” – our weekly video series.
In this series our Change Makers share their stories, their thoughts, their ambitions and their actions to leave the earth a better place – to be a Good Ancestor to future generations.
Our planet is experiencing catastrophic environmental harm and it requires us to Think Long Term, beyond our lifetimes, to evaluate our choices and to take actions to ensure a sustainable and healthy future for all.
The stories of those leading the change – The Change Makers – those thinking and acting with long-term vision, are inspirational.
Inspired, we can ask ourselves, “what can we do to be Better Ancestors?”
This week, Better Ancestors visits again with Dean Baigent-Mercer.
Dean is Forest & Bird’s Northland Conservation Advocate and has been described as New Zealand’s dread-locked version of David Attenborough with attitude.
Watch as he explains the difference in life cycles and browsing methods of two animals in the natural landscapes of Aotearoa New Zealand.
New Zealand, prior to the arrival of Homo sapiens, some 900 years ago, was a land without terrestrial mammals. Our plants and animals were adapted to this environment. The infinitely complex interrelationships of the geography, the plants and the animals were changed with the introduction of exotic pests.
Using the story of the extinction of the Moa and the introduction of Deer, both consequences of actions by us, Dean shows how the entire fabric of our remaining indigenous forests has now been brought to the point of imminent risk of collapse.
“Deer, goats, pigs and wallabies eat the forest from the bottom up while the possums eat the forest from the top down – bit by bit – over the years and decades, the forests’ natural food web falls apart and natural forest regeneration is undermined by the scoffing mammal”
Some of our greatest carbon sinks, the native forests, turn into carbon emitters as the ancient trees killed by possums and deer die and release carbon dioxide as they rot away.”
We need to seriously reduce or eliminate possum, deer and other browsing animals in native forests so that the native forests can again return
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Episode 45 premieres next week, Sunday 21st November 2021.
The Change Makers
made possible by Better Ancestors Ltd.