From left: Jess Farrar, Larissa Hinds, Milly Woods.
We asked each of our scholarship recipients to reflect on aspects of the conference they found most valuable and stimulating. As Milly was able to attend the pre-conference Pacific Day, we asked her to focus her comments on that day.
Milly Woods (Doctoral student, University of Canterbury)
I was lucky enough to attend the pre-conference Pacific day, which was organised by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) in partnership with EIANZ and NZAIA and hosted by Stantec. The importance of partnerships for sustainability quickly became clear as the theme of the day, with Easter Chu Shing, the Deputy Director-General of SPREP, speaking about the importance of partnerships and collaboration throughout the Pacific in her introduction. This was reinforced by many of the speakers throughout the day, including Rachelle Marburg from the World Bank, who presented on a project on capacity strengthening, which had a strong focus on collaboration. The value of coming together for conversation, or talanoa, was discussed throughout the day as a good way of strengthening relationships for ongoing collaboration.
There was a really interesting range of presentations, including participants from Kiribati, Samoa, Cook Islands, Tonga and Tokelau, who spoke about the challenges and opportunities of Environmental Impact Assessment in their respective countries. Some issues raised were capacity and staff retention, and hearing about the volume of impact assessments that some presenters were reviewing really put this into perspective. An initiative that was presented by the team from the Cook Islands was a system of E-permitting, which had a number of benefits for staff that made the process both more practical for staff and efficient. The conversation and information sharing about this with participants from other countries was an example of the benefits of collaboration on the day.
I really enjoyed the group discussions in the afternoon, which were both a great opportunity to learn more about the different environmental issues that countries in the Pacific are facing and working on, and also a chance to meet people and talk (something I have missed while writing my thesis!). The Pacific day was a really great way to start the conference, and I am very appreciative of NZAIA for the opportunity to attend.
I was lucky enough to attend the pre-conference Pacific day, which was organised by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) in partnership with EIANZ and NZAIA and hosted by Stantec. The importance of partnerships for sustainability quickly became clear as the theme of the day, with Easter Chu Shing, the Deputy Director-General of SPREP, speaking about the importance of partnerships and collaboration throughout the Pacific in her introduction. This was reinforced by many of the speakers throughout the day, including Rachelle Marburg from the World Bank, who presented on a project on capacity strengthening, which had a strong focus on collaboration. The value of coming together for conversation, or talanoa, was discussed throughout the day as a good way of strengthening relationships for ongoing collaboration.
There was a really interesting range of presentations, including participants from Kiribati, Samoa, Cook Islands, Tonga and Tokelau, who spoke about the challenges and opportunities of Environmental Impact Assessment in their respective countries. Some issues raised were capacity and staff retention, and hearing about the volume of impact assessments that some presenters were reviewing really put this into perspective. An initiative that was presented by the team from the Cook Islands was a system of E-permitting, which had a number of benefits for staff that made the process both more practical for staff and efficient. The conversation and information sharing about this with participants from other countries was an example of the benefits of collaboration on the day.
I really enjoyed the group discussions in the afternoon, which were both a great opportunity to learn more about the different environmental issues that countries in the Pacific are facing and working on, and also a chance to meet people and talk (something I have missed while writing my thesis!). The Pacific day was a really great way to start the conference, and I am very appreciative of NZAIA for the opportunity to attend.
Larissa Hinds, MPlan student, University of Otago.
I was lucky enough to be selected as one of three postgraduate students supported by NZAIA to attend the EIANZ Conference 2023, held in Tāmaki Makaurau | Auckland. We joined practitioners from Aotearoa-New Zealand, Australia, and twelve Pacific nations, and staff from SPREP, to discuss current and future challenges, and emerging opportunities, for environmental practice. I focus this reflection on highlights from the first day of proceedings, as well as Day Two’s IA session.
The conference kicked off with the keynote address from Pulitzer-winner Elizabeth Kolbert, who spoke via teleconference. Kolbert zoomed in on equity issues in global responses to the climate crisis, ultimately questioning: is decarboning about replacing one technology with another at the same levels of consumption, or about reconceptualising and scaling back? Though this was a sharp start to the conference, Kolbert also took the time to remind us that “small groups of committed people working in the political space can have more impact than they think.” I found this particularly motivating, as a young practitioner trying to understand social-ecological complexity while remaining alive to the nested scales at which climate change leaves a fingerprint.
The next Panel Session convened three Indigenous speakers. Prof. Deen Sanders (Worimi; partner in Deloitte) emphasised truth-telling and cycles of responsibility in his discussion of how landscape is conceptualised in a relational, Indigenous worldview. He reminded us that it is social systems that are resistant to change, and “fear is a tool for inaction.” Jope Davetanivalu (Fiji; SPREP) expressed the importance of kinship in his people’s responsibility to safeguard species. Delma O’Kane (Ngāti Manuhiri Settlement Trust) spoke of “walking to two worlds” regarding the intersection of mātauranga and Western science, and an indebtedness to protect the lands and waters that one is from through the exercise of kaitiaki responsibilities. All three underlined that it was vital for practitioners to respect the knowledge-holders in Indigenous communities, and to embrace holism of systems rather than just the fine-grained data.
The first of two concurrent sessions followed the morning addresses. I attended the session on Making cities more resilient. For me, Wildaliz de Jesús gave a stand-out presentation that explored the intersections between climate adaptation and disability inclusion. Through a justice lens, she explained how disabled communities are “at the frontlines” of climate change (a term that she preferred, as it was more agentic than the notion of ‘vulnerability’). de Jesús implored us to consider: “how do we think across intersections when harm is not equally-distributed?” I think this valuable to bear in mind when considering the extent to which IA and SIA methodologies attend to inequitably-distributed impacts. I came away thinking about the South Dunedin Future programme, which generates new possibilities for how (urban) planners might consult on – or co-design – policy options for communities at the frontlines of sea-level rise.
This reflection would be incomplete without a summary of the excellent IA session on Day Two. We had a full schedule, covering IA matters in: Antarctica; Aotearoa-New Zealand transport infrastructure; environmental professional ethics; risk management in the Pacific; and opportunities for IA under the RMA reforms, as discussed by Richard Morgan, which was very timely for any local practitioner wondering whether the NBEA and SPA will be repealed. I highlight Jamie Steer’s presentation on Waka Kotahi’s new Ecological IA Guidelines. Among the issues he addresses, it was useful to contemplate the tensions between delivery of new public infrastructure (or maintenance of existing infrastructure) and avoiding losses to indigenous biodiversity and wetlands. Working towards an understanding of Best Practice was a key theme across all five talks.
In sum, the 2023 EIANZ conference opened a world of insights about how environmental practitioners are tackling the interdependent social and ecological challenges we face. Technical content aside, the tea breaks fostered many insightful conversations, reinforcing the value of bringing together early other career professionals and acclaimed practitioners from here and abroad. I am especially grateful for the number of excellent technical presentations on freshwater and coastal-marine systems, which I am sure to draw on. Thank you to Richard, Terry, and the rest of NZAIA for providing this opportunity.
I was lucky enough to be selected as one of three postgraduate students supported by NZAIA to attend the EIANZ Conference 2023, held in Tāmaki Makaurau | Auckland. We joined practitioners from Aotearoa-New Zealand, Australia, and twelve Pacific nations, and staff from SPREP, to discuss current and future challenges, and emerging opportunities, for environmental practice. I focus this reflection on highlights from the first day of proceedings, as well as Day Two’s IA session.
The conference kicked off with the keynote address from Pulitzer-winner Elizabeth Kolbert, who spoke via teleconference. Kolbert zoomed in on equity issues in global responses to the climate crisis, ultimately questioning: is decarboning about replacing one technology with another at the same levels of consumption, or about reconceptualising and scaling back? Though this was a sharp start to the conference, Kolbert also took the time to remind us that “small groups of committed people working in the political space can have more impact than they think.” I found this particularly motivating, as a young practitioner trying to understand social-ecological complexity while remaining alive to the nested scales at which climate change leaves a fingerprint.
The next Panel Session convened three Indigenous speakers. Prof. Deen Sanders (Worimi; partner in Deloitte) emphasised truth-telling and cycles of responsibility in his discussion of how landscape is conceptualised in a relational, Indigenous worldview. He reminded us that it is social systems that are resistant to change, and “fear is a tool for inaction.” Jope Davetanivalu (Fiji; SPREP) expressed the importance of kinship in his people’s responsibility to safeguard species. Delma O’Kane (Ngāti Manuhiri Settlement Trust) spoke of “walking to two worlds” regarding the intersection of mātauranga and Western science, and an indebtedness to protect the lands and waters that one is from through the exercise of kaitiaki responsibilities. All three underlined that it was vital for practitioners to respect the knowledge-holders in Indigenous communities, and to embrace holism of systems rather than just the fine-grained data.
The first of two concurrent sessions followed the morning addresses. I attended the session on Making cities more resilient. For me, Wildaliz de Jesús gave a stand-out presentation that explored the intersections between climate adaptation and disability inclusion. Through a justice lens, she explained how disabled communities are “at the frontlines” of climate change (a term that she preferred, as it was more agentic than the notion of ‘vulnerability’). de Jesús implored us to consider: “how do we think across intersections when harm is not equally-distributed?” I think this valuable to bear in mind when considering the extent to which IA and SIA methodologies attend to inequitably-distributed impacts. I came away thinking about the South Dunedin Future programme, which generates new possibilities for how (urban) planners might consult on – or co-design – policy options for communities at the frontlines of sea-level rise.
This reflection would be incomplete without a summary of the excellent IA session on Day Two. We had a full schedule, covering IA matters in: Antarctica; Aotearoa-New Zealand transport infrastructure; environmental professional ethics; risk management in the Pacific; and opportunities for IA under the RMA reforms, as discussed by Richard Morgan, which was very timely for any local practitioner wondering whether the NBEA and SPA will be repealed. I highlight Jamie Steer’s presentation on Waka Kotahi’s new Ecological IA Guidelines. Among the issues he addresses, it was useful to contemplate the tensions between delivery of new public infrastructure (or maintenance of existing infrastructure) and avoiding losses to indigenous biodiversity and wetlands. Working towards an understanding of Best Practice was a key theme across all five talks.
In sum, the 2023 EIANZ conference opened a world of insights about how environmental practitioners are tackling the interdependent social and ecological challenges we face. Technical content aside, the tea breaks fostered many insightful conversations, reinforcing the value of bringing together early other career professionals and acclaimed practitioners from here and abroad. I am especially grateful for the number of excellent technical presentations on freshwater and coastal-marine systems, which I am sure to draw on. Thank you to Richard, Terry, and the rest of NZAIA for providing this opportunity.
Jess Farrar, Master of Planning student, Lincoln University.
I am fortunate to share some of my experience at the EIANZ 2023 conference in Auckland, made possible by the postgraduate student scholarship from NZAIA. Under the theme, "Leading the Wave of Change," the conference proved to be an immensely beneficial and enlightening experience.
As a Master of Planning student at Lincoln University, I found myself immersed in a “sea of knowledge” with multiple speakers in concurrent sessions, making it a challenge to choose which room to attend! However, amidst the diversity of topics, a common thread emerged - the incorporation of indigenous knowledge and perspectives into IA. This overarching theme resonated throughout the sessions and left a lasting impression on my understanding of IA. While all presentations were valuable, some reflections stood out, urging me to delve deeper into aspects not extensively covered in my studies, of which I will briefly mention following.
The range of speakers covered an extensive array of topics, from resilience and climate change adaptation to circular economy waste management and ethics in IA. Notably, the conference broadened my perspective on the holistic impact of climate change (further to my studies at University), emphasising that the human rights perspective and the preservation of cultural integrity are as crucial as addressing environmental effects. The conference also emphasised the duty of professional practitioners to move beyond policy creation, actively implementing strategies that translate into meaningful change
.
Wildaliz de Jesus delivered a compelling talk, delving into the social aspect of IA, specifically addressing the mental health impacts of climate change on individuals with disabilities. Her presentation highlighted the vulnerability of this group, particularly during events like heatwaves that can lead to social isolation. The call for citizen science and collaborative efforts for health and wellbeing resonated strongly, exemplified by initiatives such as Sweltering Cities and WACOSS for community-led action and planning in Australia.
Keynote speaker Rod Oram, a financial journalist, offered a unique perspective. His words, "we won't do enough till we care enough," highlighted the profound importance of a spiritual relationship with the living earth—a perspective that offered a refreshing outlook on our collective responsibility. Despite his years of discussing sustainability and the climate crisis, his enduring optimism was a refreshing reminder that meaningful change begins with caring and connection.
A notable highlight was the field trip around South Auckland's stormwater and streams. Although the airport segment was unfortunately cancelled, the journey through the Botanic gardens and the Takanini Integrated Stormwater Solution was both informative and enjoyable. The stormwater project, one of New Zealand's largest, showcased the balance between urban development and environmental conservation. The 3km urban wetland, interspersed with ancient Kauri logs (uncovered during excavation and left in place), served as a habitat for native flora and fauna while providing effective water treatment—a testament to the possibilities of sustainable urban planning.
The networking opportunities proved to be invaluable as well. Engaging with professionals from the planning and IA disciplines allowed me to gain first hand insights into their experiences and perspectives. As I prepare to conclude my studies and enter the workforce, these connections have equipped me with practical knowledge and a broader understanding of the challenges and opportunities in the field.
The EIANZ 2023 conference was an immensely beneficial experience that enhanced my understanding of IA and its role in shaping a sustainable future. I genuinely came away with a renewed interest and motivation to be a part of positive change.
I am fortunate to share some of my experience at the EIANZ 2023 conference in Auckland, made possible by the postgraduate student scholarship from NZAIA. Under the theme, "Leading the Wave of Change," the conference proved to be an immensely beneficial and enlightening experience.
As a Master of Planning student at Lincoln University, I found myself immersed in a “sea of knowledge” with multiple speakers in concurrent sessions, making it a challenge to choose which room to attend! However, amidst the diversity of topics, a common thread emerged - the incorporation of indigenous knowledge and perspectives into IA. This overarching theme resonated throughout the sessions and left a lasting impression on my understanding of IA. While all presentations were valuable, some reflections stood out, urging me to delve deeper into aspects not extensively covered in my studies, of which I will briefly mention following.
The range of speakers covered an extensive array of topics, from resilience and climate change adaptation to circular economy waste management and ethics in IA. Notably, the conference broadened my perspective on the holistic impact of climate change (further to my studies at University), emphasising that the human rights perspective and the preservation of cultural integrity are as crucial as addressing environmental effects. The conference also emphasised the duty of professional practitioners to move beyond policy creation, actively implementing strategies that translate into meaningful change
.
Wildaliz de Jesus delivered a compelling talk, delving into the social aspect of IA, specifically addressing the mental health impacts of climate change on individuals with disabilities. Her presentation highlighted the vulnerability of this group, particularly during events like heatwaves that can lead to social isolation. The call for citizen science and collaborative efforts for health and wellbeing resonated strongly, exemplified by initiatives such as Sweltering Cities and WACOSS for community-led action and planning in Australia.
Keynote speaker Rod Oram, a financial journalist, offered a unique perspective. His words, "we won't do enough till we care enough," highlighted the profound importance of a spiritual relationship with the living earth—a perspective that offered a refreshing outlook on our collective responsibility. Despite his years of discussing sustainability and the climate crisis, his enduring optimism was a refreshing reminder that meaningful change begins with caring and connection.
A notable highlight was the field trip around South Auckland's stormwater and streams. Although the airport segment was unfortunately cancelled, the journey through the Botanic gardens and the Takanini Integrated Stormwater Solution was both informative and enjoyable. The stormwater project, one of New Zealand's largest, showcased the balance between urban development and environmental conservation. The 3km urban wetland, interspersed with ancient Kauri logs (uncovered during excavation and left in place), served as a habitat for native flora and fauna while providing effective water treatment—a testament to the possibilities of sustainable urban planning.
The networking opportunities proved to be invaluable as well. Engaging with professionals from the planning and IA disciplines allowed me to gain first hand insights into their experiences and perspectives. As I prepare to conclude my studies and enter the workforce, these connections have equipped me with practical knowledge and a broader understanding of the challenges and opportunities in the field.
The EIANZ 2023 conference was an immensely beneficial experience that enhanced my understanding of IA and its role in shaping a sustainable future. I genuinely came away with a renewed interest and motivation to be a part of positive change.