Kevin Prime MBE, Northland

Kevin Prime MBE - Farmer, forester, conservationist and company director. Kevin is from the northern iwi Ngatihine and is involved in a number of trusts and committees dealing with Maori and iwi issues. He is also a director of Landcare Research and is involved in a kereru recovery project in the far north.

I would love to have my children and grand-children enjoy many of the privileges I experienced as a child. Walking through the forest and eating the edible berries; or knotting kiekie bushes to harvest the delicious tawhara fruit 3 months later; lying on the thick mat of parataniwha; being able to drink pure uncontaminated fresh water directly out of the streams; or even to get to the stage where our cultural foods and materials could be harvested in a sustainable manner.

In my ideal Aotearoa I envisage luxuriant forests consisting of the full range of native species, dripping with fruit, providing year round food for the teeming bird life. Undergrowth is so dense that a machete is needed to make headway through the forest floor. The cacophony of the dawn chorus such that ACC would recommend wearing earmuffs when we walk into forests; the screech of the kiwi and hoots of the morepork keeping overnight campers awake until the early hours of the morning.

Our creeks, streams and rivers flowing with clear, unadulterated and pure fresh water, abounding with tuna, kokopu, kewai, karawaka, inanga, papane, and the many macro-invertebrates that keep our streams in pristine condition.

As a landowner I do see difficulties - we still have to survive through deriving some form of income or sustenance from our land. We still need to find and strike that balance between prudent land use and managing our land for environmental enrichment and sustainability. We need to find a way to encourage all New Zealanders to voluntarily manage the biodiversity on privately owned land.