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September 25, 2015
Maori lost in action on river clean up
Waatea Team
Posted On September 25, 2015
A freshwater ecologist says Maori need to be presenting a united voice about cleaning up the country’s rivers.
Mike Joy from Massey University has contributed to a new survey of New Zealand’s rivers that shows 74 percent of native freshwater specie are now endangered.
That’s up from about 20 percent just 25 years ago.
He says the fish have no formal legal protection, and no one, including Maori, seems to be standing up for them.
"When I saw the Waikato Tainui agreement that said we want a swimable, fishable Waikato River, I thought fantastic, this is going to change everything. Since that time I just feel let down because no one seems to be standing up and fighting and we just have more and more degradation of the Waikato system and no one seems to be jumping up and down," Dr Joy says.
He says the key to cleaning up river systems is to stop pollution from animals getting into them, but no one seems to want to address the increasing number of animals on the surrounding land.
FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH MIKE JOY CLICK ON THE LINK
https://secure.zeald.com/uma/play_podcast?podlink=MzMwNzA=
Copyright © 2015, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com
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