Our community engagement
Our operations can sometimes impact water, rivers, birds, animals, and plant life. Each region is unique, so we have site-specific management plans for local biodiversity, which we develop by engaging with neighbours, environmental groups, tangata whenua and local councils.
We also look for opportunities to partner with and support other landowners, tangata whenua and community groups to further protect biodiversity on land Contact does not own. We do this by supporting environmental education, providing financial contributions, and through on-the-ground mahi and partnership projects. For more information on our community mahi, see our communities webpage.
Our actions to care for our natural resources
In some cases, impacts on biodiversity, eg. site clearance, may endure over the life of our consents, and are somewhat irreversible unless we cease our operations. In some cases, there are enhancement actions, eg. wetland restoration, that can be taken at other locations to balance those impacts. We need to keep the lights on for New Zealanders while at the same time doing our best to minimise any impacts.
We conduct location-specific biodiversity assessments for all proposed projects, which give us a good understanding of any impacts on biodiversity. Please refer to an example of a biodiversity assessment here. Under the Assessment of Environmental Effects framework we identify and quantify any effects on local species or ecosystems. We focus on the mitigation hierarchy under the Resource Management Act to avoid, minimise, remedy or offset our impact and we work with stakeholders to develop options to improve those species’ chance of survival for future generations to enjoy.
Our eel (tuna) transfer programme at Roxburgh dam is a good example of one such project in action. Young eel (or elver) make their way up purpose-built ramps at the dam, where we relocate them above the dam throughout the Clutha Mata-Au. We also give adult eel the helping hand they need to migrate out to the Pacific Ocean. See how the eel transfer programme works in this video.
The operation of geothermal assets can cause changes to surface temperatures and therefore affects the dispersion of habitats appropriate for geothermal vegetation. Contact undertakes regular monitoring of surface features, temperatures, and geothermal vegetation to help understand our impacts. We have committed funding through the Wairakei Environmental Mitigation Charitable Trust (WEMCT) to proactively control pest plants within geothermal vegetation sites and protect these areas of biodiversity.
Other activities include:
- intensive four-yearly assessments of geothermal vegetation at our geothermal fields
- pest management
- native tree planting
- other restoration and protection programmes to protect our precious land.
- meeting consent conditions that require Contact to monitor, protect, enhance, and or restore biodiversity.
Information on our pest eradication and tree planting statistics, as well as our IUCN* Red List specieis, is available in our Integrated Report.
Protecting indigenous areas
We do not operate in National Parks or cut down mature indigenous forest across any of our operations. In situations where vegetation clearance is necessary, we adhere to New Zealand Government policies and rehabilitate these areas with indigenous species or offset any unavoidable permanent clearance (such as relocating access roads to less-sensitive areas).
Contact will not operate in World Heritage Sites or IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Category I-IV protected areas, and we expect our suppliers, partners, and other stakeholders to adopt a similar position.
Land use
Contact’s freehold land is used for a number of activities including power stations and steamfields and also additional land that is leased as farm land or used for community purposes such as Pony Clubs and Riding for Development in Taupo.
We continuously review our land use to identify whether there is a better use of the land which has lower environmental and biodiversity impacts, including retiring highly erodible or less profitable areas of land from farming and planting these with indigenous vegetation.
Looking forward
Protecting and restoring biodiversity and other natural treasures is a material topic for Contact and we know our stakeholders expect us to act on broader biodiversity impacts. We are working on developing an approach to nature in line with the Taskforce for Nature Related Disclosures (TNFD) to ensure we play our part in tackling the issue of biodiversity loss and heading towards a nature-positive future.