Biodiversity
MoRST’s role in policy development for biodiversity is outlined in the introduction to the Environment section.
What is biodiversity?
Biological diversity, or biodiversity for short, describes the variety of all biological life – plants, animals, fungi and microorganisms – the genes they contain and the ecosystems on land or in water where they live. It is the diversity of life on earth.
What’s happening in Government?
Information about New Zealand’s native biodiversity, and who is doing what to help conserve and manage it can be found at - www.biodiversity.govt.nz.
Included is information about the New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy.
Four agencies have lead roles in co-ordinating central government’s efforts to achieve the desired outcomes of the biodiversity strategy:
- Department of Conservation
- Ministry for the Environment
- Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
- Ministry of Fisheries.
What are New Zealand’s international obligations?
New Zealand ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1993.
The CBD was a groundbreaking initiative adopted by the vast majority (168) of the world’s governments. It sets out commitments for maintaining the world's ecological health as we go about the business of economic development.
The Convention establishes three main goals:
- the conservation of biological diversity
- the sustainable use of its components
- the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits from the use of genetic resources.
New Zealand joined the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) in February 2001.
GBIF is a network of biodiversity databases and information technology tools that will enable users to navigate and put to use the world's vast quantities of biodiversity information.
It will help researchers and people managing biosecurity and biodiversity in New Zealand to find extremely useful information from a wide range of national and international databases. They will be able to find out about species similar to New Zealand's native plants and animals, and also about pests with the potential to get into New Zealand in the future.
MoRST's GBIF contact is Tony Robinson.
For further information, visit GBIF's website.
What's the role of research, science and technology in biodiversity?
Research into New Zealand’s’ biodiversity allows us to better understand and manage the unique organisms that contribute to our biodiversity. Many of New Zealand’s plants and animals are found only in New Zealand so research from overseas is not always applicable. By undertaking research in New Zealand we are able to better protect and manage its biodiversity.