Social movements and the environment

Abstract

Concern for environmental conservation in some form in Aotearoa New Zealand – as elsewhere in the West – can be formally traced back to at least the mid nineteenth century (Young, 2004), although this was preceded by Indigenous values and practices around the use of natural resources (Gunn, 2007; Young, 2004). Legislation to protect forests and wilderness emerged in New Zealand around the 1870s, followed by the Scenery Preservation Act of 1903. This led to the compulsory acquisition of land to create scenic reserves, much of which land was owned by Mori, who were poorly compensated for their loss (Mills, 2009). At the same time, the dominant discourse of settler colonialism revolved around ‘productive’ land use, which saw large-scale deforestation, destruction of biodiversity and the draining of wetlands, and remained largely unquestioned by either the state or a majority of Pkeh society at large (Skilling et al., forthcoming). Thus both ‘conservationism’ and ‘preservationism’ – the forerunners of the modern environmental movement – did little to challenge the large-scale environmental change unfolding across the country, while remaining impervious to Mori rights and concerns.