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| October 2002 |
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Biodiversity public workshops
Five public workshops are being held this month to discuss
how to enhance the city’s biodiversity — the elements that are
part of Christchurch, naturally. What is biodiversity? For Christchurch it means the plants,
birds, fish and insects that occur here naturally. “It’s the sum total of biological variety, including genes, species
and ecosystems,” says ecologist Dr Colin Meurk. In this sense
Christchurch is still a biologically rich environment despite the
loss of many unique habitats over the last 800 years. Christchurch and Canterbury has had a rich history of unique
plants, birds, fish and insects. The tui was once common here, our
waterways had a wealth of native fish, and bats nested under the
wooden bridges of rivers such as the Heathcote. Although much has been lost, some survive, often against the
odds, and in well used areas such as the Port Hills, coast,
waterways and the tussock grasslands just west of the city. The city has many individuals and groups committed tobringing back the native ecology and restoring environmental
habitat. One of the aims of the strategy is to link these groups
and the City Council, to teach people about natural values in
their area and to identify where work needs to be done. We may not always appreciate it, but biodiversity provides us
with many of the things which sustain our quality of life and
sense of place. How would you like the natural environment of
Christchurch to look in 50 years? Come along and have your say.
The public workshops are: |