Interview with Lauren Walker, speaking on behalf of Tasman Environmental Trust
Hosted by Jodie Kuntzsch, Moananui
Tasman Environmental Trust’s Core and Restore Blue Carbon project is a community-based initiative with ambitious plans to measure, protect and restore coastal blue carbon habitats across Te Tauihu, top of the South Island.
The project’s two-year pilot (2021-2023) involved taking sediment samples from Waimea Inlet and Onetahua Farewell Spit as a first step towards understanding the stored levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide in these coastal ecosystems.
Results offer a first glimpse of the sites’ carbon-sink potential and highlight the important role of coastal wetlands in storing carbon and supporting thriving estuaries.
The project is led by Lauren Walker on behalf of Tasman Environmental Trust, in
collaboration with key partners Cawthron Institute, Beca, Ngāti Apa ki te Rā
Tō and Nelson City Council, and supporters Manawhenua ki Mohua, HealthPost Nature Trust, the Department of Conservation, Live Ocean, Pic’s Peanut Butter, Nelson Tasman Climate Forum, Kidson Investments and Andy MacDonald.
Lauren Walker is an independent Strategic Project Leader currently leading the Tasman Environmental Trust’s Core and Restore Blue Carbon project. She has an MA in Geography, with a focus on corporate sustainability, and a long history of helping to generate solutions to big sustainability and resilience challenges.
Lauren has worked as a consultant on corporate sustainability in a number of sectors across New Zealand, Australia, Canada and Mexico, including forestry, wood processing, construction & timber design, industry training & education, transport (freight, rail, ports), infrastructure, health, retail & service sector and social enterprise/impact.
Lauren believes in cross-sector, multidisciplinary collaboration as key to making real headway in the business response to climate change.
Thank you to the Nelson Regional Development Agency for their support for Mission Insights.
