Bluewater Proud To Receive EDS Green Tick

Bluewater Proud To Receive EDS Green Tick

Bluewater Holdings today said it was proud to be awarded the inaugural Environmental Defence Society (EDS) Green Tick in recognition of its work to protect and restore the Walter C Mountain Landing property in the Bay of Islands.

The Green Tick is a certification initiative launched by EDS to recognise people and companies who are developing coastal land in a positive way and going beyond the minimum required of them by the Resource Management Act.

Bluewater spokesman Peter Jones said the company purchased the 338.2-hectare property as a working farm from the Mountain family in 1999. Since then the property’s environmental, cultural and heritage aspects have played a key role in its development.

“We are absolutely delighted to have been chosen by EDS to receive the inaugural Green Tick. We have been passionate about the protection and restoration of this very special piece of New Zealand and it’s important to have a group like the Environmental Defence Society recognise that commitment.

“This is a unique and special place which includes five kilometers of coastline, five white sand beaches, three streams and three wetland areas. Our philosophy is that as custodians of the property we have a responsibility to the protection and improvement of this land.

“The project not only involves the land but the local people as well, with 15 local people now working with us. One of our first tasks was to fence off the bush and wetlands to protect these areas from stock damage. We’ve now planted more than 250,000 native plants as part of our re-vegetation project,” he said.

Peter Jones said Bluewater has also made sure that the public has access to the historic Terakihi Peninsula and its beaches by putting in place a conservation covenant.

To gain the green tick, Mountain Landing has been through a rigorous evaluation process with the EDS including on-site inspections and has met their comprehensive guidelines to prove the development’s commitment to best practice.

The EDS Chairperson, Gary Taylor described Mountain Landing as “ a stunning example of how the coast can be developed and is a model for others to follow.”

Peter Jones said the vision for the property is not to subdivide it in a conventional way, but to retain single ownership of the entire development allowing for an integrated approach to the management of the iconic heritage landscape and ecology in perpetuity.

“We have also made a huge investment in consultation with local iwi and hapu, the local community, environmental and interest groups. We have put in an enormous amount of time and effort in to get this right.

“We want to make sure that when future generations look back on our work here they feel that we did the right thing,” said Peter Jones.

© Scoop Media