A greener future for Manurewa awaits with the adoption of an Urban Ngahere Action Plan.
Manurewa Local Board Chair Joseph Allan says the plan is part of a regional approach, Te Rautaki Ngahere ā-Tāone o Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland’s Urban Forest Strategy, which responds to changes in tree canopy cover and potential climate change impacts.
“The overall aim is to increase tree canopy cover across all local board areas to 30 per cent by 2050, and we have a long way to go in Manurewa, which has only 13 per cent coverage.”
He says the work would be impossible without the targeted environmental rate, widely supported within Manurewa during consultation on Auckland Council’s budget.
“We could not hope to deliver this without regional funding. Residents made it clear they supported the targeted rate and that they want schemes like this to deliver a greener future for Manurewa.
“The board first funded a plan to understand our current canopy cover, and to plan to increase it. It was put together in three stages, ‘knowing’, ‘growing’ and ‘protecting’.
“Knowing involved a lot of analysis that established tree coverage in our area was 13 per cent of the overall land area, and the final part has been to develop a 10-year action plan to target areas where trees can be planted to increase that.”
Adopting the plan sets the direction for tree planting over the next 10 years on the Growing phase.
Allan says the plan should be reviewed every three years to update the board on planting progress, enable planning, provide opportunities for new initiatives, and to highlight the next steps to increase tree cover.
“Each year annual planting plans, including site analysis, tree selection, soil and environmental condition analysis, will be prepared.
“No one can doubt that planting more trees will help fight climate change, or that increased canopy coverage will make our area more appealing.
“It’s especially important this work take place in Manurewa, which has a lot lower levels of canopy coverage than many other areas, and even then, a significant amount of our coverage is within Totara Park.”
Implementing the strategy will help mitigate emissions, while more trees and vegetation will increase carbon sequestration and contribute towards reducing net greenhouse gas emissions.
More trees also provide various natural functions such as providing shading and cooling, slowing and reducing stormwater run-off, improving air quality and providing additional habitat for indigenous species.
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