Human impact on local environment

Senior students studying Education for Sustainability are on a mission. They have embraced aspects of sustainability by looking into the human impact on the biophysical environment, in their own communities. Through personal research and their own observations, students have become more aware of the consequences of human actions by making recommendations of their own to ensure the need for more sustainable practices for future generations. 

Nehana Griffiths (Bream Bay College) and Anna Connell (Orewa College) have focussed on their local estuaries and discovered the negative impact that developing subdivisions, resulting sedimentation and climate change - in particular the recent storms - are having on the biodiversity of their chosen environments.

Next term Nehana and Anna will take their learning a step further by undertaking a personal action to address an important sustainability issue. Nehana plans to look at reducing household food waste, while Anna will endeavour to ‘bring back the bees‘ to enable more productive and sustainable food production.

With students' growing awareness of sustainability issues and practice, our future will be in safe hands.