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| Founded | 1974, Auckland |
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| Type | Non-governmental organization |
| Focus | Environmentalism, peace |
| Location |
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Area served | New Zealand |
| Method | Direct action, lobbying, research, innovation |
Key people | Executive Director – Russel Norman |
Revenue | $10.272 million NZD (2014) |
| Website | greenpeace.org/aotearoa/ |
Greenpeace Aotearoa (GPAo) is one of New Zealand's largest environmental organisations, and is a national office of the global environmental organisation Greenpeace.
Greenpeace Aotearoa New Zealand was founded in 1974, two years after the original Greenpeace, to protect the natural environment.
Greenpeace Aotearoa New Zealand emerged from an amalgam of 1960s and 1970s NZ peace groups and activists, who had for a decade been actively promoting their opposition to the Vietnam War and nuclear testing. In particular, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (NZ) who were nationally campaigning against French nuclear testing in French Polynesia since 1961, culminating in an 80,238 signature petition presented to the New Zealand Government in 1962 demanding they take punitive action against the French to enforce a nuclear test ban in the Pacific. [1] Two key NZ CND leaders in the 1970s involved with Greenpeace pursued political careers; Richard Northey ONZM as a NZ MP and Mike Rann CNZM as Premier of South Australia and Minister for Climate Change and Sustainability. Other groups in the peace collective included the NZ Peace Media, NZ Friends of the Earth, the Auckland Peace Squadron and Project Jonah. [2]
There were two key developments in the New Zealand peace movement in 1974. The first was the official formation of the Greenpeace Foundation of New Zealand in April through the union of a collective of peace groups and their supporters. The second was the decision to send the yacht Fri on an epic voyage around the Pacific carrying the peace message to all nuclear weapons states. Fri’s Pacific Peace Odyssey, a 40,000 kilometres (25,000 mi) adventure across the Pacific and Indian Oceans was partially financed and co-ordinated by Greenpeace New Zealand and would last till 1977. [2]
Greenpeace Aotearoa New Zealand gained national prominence in the 1970s and 1980s for its action against nuclear weapons testing in French Polynesia, and acquired huge public sympathy after the French bombing of the Greenpeace ship the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour in 1985. The long campaign against whaling championed by Greenpeace is an issue which has had the full support of the New Zealand Government since the mid-1980s.
In 2020, the organisation's name changed to Greenpeace Aotearoa. [3] [4]
Greenpeace Aotearoa New Zealand also campaigns against nuclear weapons and nuclear power, deforestation, the release of genetically engineered organisms into the natural environment, climate change, and toxics. It uses tactics of non-violent direct action to draw attention to what it considers significant threats to the environment, and then lobbies for solutions.
In 2011 Greenpeace head Kumi Naidoo expressed concern that New Zealand is moving too slow to realise its clean potential. [5] In February 2013 Greenpeace released a report calling for New Zealand's energy production to be 100 percent renewable by 2025. The Future is Here: New Jobs, New Prosperity and a New Clean Economy report suggests New Zealand makes a dramatic shift to clean energy. [6] The report was authored by a collection of European, Australian and New Zealand academics and policy analysts. [7] This report states that nearly 30,000 jobs could be created through the expansion of geothermal and bioenergy industries, with geothermal potentially worth over NZ$4 billion annually to the New Zealand economy. [8]
Greenpeace had been involved in successful pressure to reform the tuna industry in the UK. Fish aggregating devices destroy much sealife as a side effect of fishing for one species. Greenpeace in NZ and Australia started focusing on local tuna brands. [9] Greenpeace campaigned for Sealord to put pressure on its supply chain to reduce the killing in other sea-life during tuna fishing. [10] It culminated in Sealord making reforms to phase out tuna caught using fish aggregating devices (FAD) [11]
Sealord announced it plans to remove the method from its supply chain of canned skipjack tuna by early 2014. These floating lures attract far more than adult tuna and this destructive method is said to be globally responsible for catching about 200,000 tonnes of other marine life every year. [12]
After the Bay of Plenty Rena oil spill Greenpeace volunteers assisted in cleaning up. [13] Greenpeace and Eastern Bay of Plenty iwi Te Whanau-a-Apanui took the NZ government to court over its decision to grant an oil exploration permit to Brazilian oil giant Petrobras for deep sea oil exploration in the Raukumara Basin off the East Cape. [14]
The foreign relations of New Zealand are oriented chiefly toward developed democratic nations and emerging Pacific Island economies. Until the late 20th century, New Zealand aligned itself strongly with the United Kingdom and had few bilateral relationships with other countries. From the latter half of the 20th century, Australia has been New Zealand's most important cultural, economic and military partner. Today, the country participates in several multilateral political organisations, including Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Pacific Community, and the Pacific Islands Forum. New Zealand has been described as an emerging power; however, such claims needs to be considered in the context of its medium-sized economy and limited military capability. The country's major political parties have generally agreed on the broad outlines of foreign policy, and the government has been active in promoting free trade, nuclear disarmament, and arms control.
Iwi are the largest social units in Aotearoa Māori society. The Māori-language word iwi roughly translates to "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language. Māori use the word rohe to describe the territory or boundaries of iwi.
Fernando Pereira was a freelance Portuguese-Dutch photographer, who drowned when French intelligence (DGSE) detonated a bomb and sank the Rainbow Warrior, owned by the environmental organisation Greenpeace on 10 July 1985.
Timothy Andrew Barnett is a New Zealand politician who was the member of the New Zealand House of Representatives for Christchurch Central from 1996 to 2008, representing the Labour Party. He is a British immigrant to New Zealand and New Zealand's second openly gay politician. Barnett moved to South Africa in 2009 to work in the field of HIV/AIDS. He returned to New Zealand in 2012 when he was appointed by the Labour Party as their general secretary.
The Environment and Conservation Organisations of Aotearoa New Zealand (ECO) was formed in 1971 under the name of CoEnCo and changed its name to ECO in 1976.
Jabez Leslie Bryce was a Tongan-born Anglican bishop. He was the Bishop of Polynesia in the Province of New Zealand, which includes most of the South Pacific. He served from 1975 until his death in 2010. He was elevated to Archepiscopacy of the diocese in 2006.
The sinking of Rainbow Warrior, codenamed Opération Satanique, was a bombing operation by the "action" branch of the French foreign intelligence services, the Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure (DGSE), carried out on 10 July 1985. During the operation, two operatives sank the flagship of the Greenpeace fleet, Rainbow Warrior, at the Port of Auckland on her way to a protest against a planned French nuclear test in Moruroa. Fernando Pereira, a photographer, drowned on the sinking ship.
Claims and settlements under the Treaty of Waitangi have been a significant feature of New Zealand race relations and politics since the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975. Successive governments have increasingly provided formal legal and political opportunity for Māori to seek redress for breaches by the Crown of the guarantees set out in the Treaty of Waitangi. While it has resulted in putting to rest a number of significant longstanding grievances, the process has been subject to criticisms from a number of angles, from those who believe that the redress is insufficient to compensate for Māori losses, to those who see no value in revisiting painful and contentious historical issues. The settlements are typically seen as part of a broader Māori Renaissance.
Peter Willcox is an American sea captain best known for his activism with the environmental organization Greenpeace. He was on board as captain of the Rainbow Warrior when it was bombed and sunk by the DGSE in New Zealand in 1985. In 2013, he was aboard the MV Arctic Sunrise when the Russian military boarded it and arrested him and 30 other activists in what became known as the "Arctic 30." He was detained for two months before being released. In 2014, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Guardian for his environmental activism.
Dominique Prieur is a French military officer who was convicted of manslaughter over her part in the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior.
Fri, a New Zealand yacht, led a flotilla of yachts in an international protest against atmospheric nuclear tests at Moruroa in French Polynesia in 1973. Fri was an important part of a series of anti-nuclear protest campaigns out of New Zealand which lasted thirty years, from which New Zealand declared itself a nuclear-free zone which was enshrined in legislation in what became the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act 1987. In 1974, coordinated by Greenpeace New Zealand, the Fri embarked on a 3-year epic 40,233-kilometer "Pacific Peace Odyssey" voyage, carrying the peace message to all nuclear states around the world.
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (NZ) was co-founded in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1959 with the help of Elsie Locke and Mary Woodward. Mabel Hetherington, who belonged to an earlier generation of peace activists from England, was largely responsible for setting up the organization in Auckland when she moved to New Zealand after World War II. With Alison Duff and Pat Denby, Hetherington carried it in Auckland through the 1960s. It was largely from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (NZ) and the Peace Media that Greenpeace New Zealand evolved.
John West Foods is a United Kingdom-based seafood marketing company established in 1857, and currently owned by Thai Union Group of Thailand. The company produces canned salmon and tuna, as well as mackerel, sardine, herring, brisling, anchovies and shellfish.
In 1984, Prime Minister David Lange banned nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed ships from using New Zealand ports or entering New Zealand waters. Under the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act 1987, territorial sea, land and airspace of New Zealand became nuclear-free zones. This has since remained a part of New Zealand's foreign policy.
Anti-nuclear organizations may oppose uranium mining, nuclear power, and/or nuclear weapons. Anti-nuclear groups have undertaken public protests and acts of civil disobedience which have included occupations of nuclear plant sites. Some of the most influential groups in the anti-nuclear movement have had members who were elite scientists, including several Nobel Laureates and many nuclear physicists.
France–New Zealand relations refers to international relations between New Zealand and France. Relations between France and New Zealand have been rocky at times, but more recently have become much closer. Bilateral relations have been generally good since World War I and World War II, with both countries working closely during the conflicts, but the relationship was severely jeopardised by the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland on 10 July 1985 by French Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure (DGSE) agents.
Rainbow Warrior was a Greenpeace boat active in supporting a number of anti-whaling, anti-seal hunting, anti-nuclear testing and anti-nuclear waste dumping campaigns during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure bombed Rainbow Warrior in the Port of Auckland, New Zealand on 10 July 1985, sinking the ship and killing photographer Fernando Pereira.
Rainbow Warrior was a three-masted schooner most notable for service with the environmental protection organization Greenpeace. She was built to replace the original Rainbow Warrior that the French intelligence service (DGSE) bombed in 1985 in the Port of Auckland, New Zealand, which sank the ship and killed photographer Fernando Pereira.
Maire Leadbeater, is a New Zealand human rights and peace activist, writer, and former social worker. She was also a councillor in the Auckland City Council and the Auckland Regional Council, who campaigned under the centre-left ticket body City Vision. During the 1980s and 1990s, Leadbeater served as the media spokesperson for the New Zealand Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, which successfully campaigned for a New Zealand nuclear-free zone and a ban on visits by nuclear-armed and nuclear-powered ships. She was also involved in various other human rights groups including the Auckland East Timor Independence Committee, the Philippines Solidarity Network of Aotearoa and the Indonesia Human Rights Committee. Her family's left-wing activities made her the target of surveillance by the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service, the country's main domestic intelligence agency.
Stephen Gregory Sawyer was an American environmentalist and activist. He served as a leader of Greenpeace for nearly 30 years, including two decades as executive director. While on a mission to stop French nuclear testing in French Polynesia, he survived France's bombing of the Greenpeace boat Rainbow Warrior, which occurred on his 29th birthday.
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