This week I had the pleasure of attending the 23rd IUHPE World Conference on Health Promotion in Rotorua, NZ. I was talking about the work that I did with Prof David Norton at the University of Canterbury, funded by Beef & Lamb, which used GIS to quantify the amount of native vegetation on different land uses and farm types around NZ. This project formed the backdrop to a lot of our work with the wider Farming & Nature Conservation Team, and our paper (written with David, as well as Hannah Buckley & Brad Case), is currently in review.
Beef and Lamb were excited by our results, which showed that around 25% of NZ's remaining native vegetation is found on sheep & beef farms, and they have been working really hard to promote it. So they sent me to Rotorua to present at IUHPE, which was a bit scary for me as I don't know a lot about human health! But it was a great exercise in thinking about the wider implications of our work, and all the different ways that native trees can impact health and sustainability.
My talk was well received despite being the only ecologist in the room I think! You can download a PDF of my slides below.
