Sam insists he is “just a bush man” but there is no “just” about it. A bushman, a hunter, a father, an author, a connector, a catchment group coordinator, humble public speaker, and a man pretty fond of getting a good feed in his puku. Sam is a storyteller and educator bringing biodiversity conservation into our farming systems.
This blog shares insights into Beck’s conversation with Sam on The Whole Story podcast. This episode is strongly tied to Sustainable Development Goal #15 – Life on Land. Becks and Sam talk all things predator control, biodiversity, and conservation, and in this blog we take a look at some of the key messages to takeaway from their conversation.
what sustainability means to Sam
For Sam, sustainability is deeply tied to ecosystems and the recognition that people are part of those ecosystems. It is a perspective on sustainability that brings together the need for thriving ecosystems and living within ecosystem limits, while also recognising the space that there is to enjoy things in the area of surplus.
I’m just a bushman Becks, and you know that. So like for me, my orientation to pretty much everything is through my puku (stomach) unfortunately. So to me I when I think about sustainability, I think about having abundant ecosystems and when we’ve got an abundance of something, there is always going to be a little surplus. And to me, it’s living within that little surplus and so that’s what sustainability to me looks like. If we’ve got an abundance of food, there’s an amount that’s needed for that ecosystem to function the way it is, but there’s also going to be enough leftover for us to either insert ourselves into that ecosystem, into that food chain, or to take a little bit of that to sell it to bring in other resources.
I’d love to get to a point where we have such an abundance of Kākāpō that there’s a sustainable harvest once more, such an abundance of Takahe here that we. A sustainable harvest once more, I mean, Kererū are not too far away in my opinion and same with Weka. So to me that’s where a lot of my aspirations around biodiversity sits is around that abundance and that sustainable harvest for our people.
Life on Land
Sustainable Development Goal #15 – Life on Land, seeks to protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.
Sam’s work sits largely in the space of halting biodiversity loss – that’s what gets him out of bed in the morning.
What that looks like for me is that when I go into the bush, I like to walk through and be like, oh, that’s delicious. That’s tasty. I can eat that. A lot of people walk through the bush and go, yeah, there’s a tree. There’s a tree. That’s a fern, and there’s a moss, you know, but the relationship between us and those rakau (trees) sometimes not as close as they could be. And so for me, there’s a big education piece that I like to be involved with around who is this plant?, and typically our plants in Aotearoa have pretty incredible relationships with us. There’s usually some way that they’re trying to be generous to us, whether it’s through food or through medicine or through the role they play in their ecosystems.
But like when it comes to our farming systems, and when it comes to halting biodiversity loss on farms, usually the things that make our farming system more financially viable and more productive are the same things we need to do for biodiversity, so it’s usually like a win win, which is pretty good.
For more on SDG #15 you can also read our SDG Spotlight blog post here.
Getting the right formula for predator control
Biodiversity and conservation doesn’t just happen on Public Conservation Land. Our farmers are a key part of the bigger picture.
Because farmers are better at it (conservation) than anyone, right? Like, farmers are used to farming species based on the equations of a farming system, which is like the same as conservation right? Like the key to growing species is making them breed and having as many of them as possible. There’s literally a farming concept. Instead of growing like grass, we’re just going well, what we need to do is remove predators. It’s the same equation. Farmers are really good at conservation, you know.
Sam stresses that successful predator control is all about having the right formula when it comes to trapping. Just like how in farming there are formulas and equations that work best to get desired results and outcomes, the same can be said for trapping. Sam gives a handy tip about how to ensure that your trapping formula is right for the different target species.
I just want to stress one thing on that is with all farming, is trapping comes with a set of formulas and one trap per hectare is good for possums, 2 traps per hectare is good for rats, and one trap every 10 hectares is good for stoats and ferrets. We can often dabble with something and not get the result because we’re not doing the equation right, so it’s kind of like with all our farming practices, there’s always an equation to give us the outcome we want, and those are the equations that work for predator control.
The challenge and opportunity when it comes to cashflow
When asked what one of the biggest challenges facing agriculture was, and how that can be flipped on its head, Sam identified that cashflow is a significant challenge. Having the cash availability to invest in biodiversity and sustainable practices is a major challenge that farmers all around the country are facing. However, Sam gets excited about creating the marketing collateral around the propositions on our farms and taking that to market. Alongside Finn Ross, Sam has been working in the biodiversity credit space with the Eastern Whio Link Catchment Group. This has allowed them to tell their story and to generate income for conservation that hasn’t had to be invested in by farmers themselves. Sam has a strong view that there is collective responsibility for ensuring that we are able to invest in sustainable practices, biodiversity and conservation, and that this is tied with deep social connections to what it means to live in Aotearoa New Zealand.
I think the biggest roadblock is that people, and I’d say like generally in New Zealand, I feel like Joe Bloggs public thinks that farmers need to pay for sustainable practices and biodiversity on farm, and my opinion is that our farmers farm on behalf of Aotearoa. So our farmers produce food for our country. Our biodiversity belongs to everyone, and in a way, the practice of farming. There’s no New Zealander that I know that doesn’t light up when they think of farming, right? It’s like the core of our culture and that feeling around farming belongs to everyone and alter it all. So to me, when I think about biodiversity and sustainability on farm, it belongs to everyone. But because it belongs to everyone, it’s everyone’s responsibility, and if it’s everyone’s responsibility, the responsibility of funding it belongs to everyone as well.
So to me, that’s the biggest thing is the cash to meet our social licence to farm around sustainability and biodiversity and that’s what I love to do is to help package up these projects and communicate them in a way that excites the townies, because when the townies are excited, when businesses are excited about what we’re doing, they’re more than happy to contribute to these practices on farm – we just need to get better at figuring out how to communicate them in ways that connects and ticks the boxes I think.
Sam's Take Home Tip
We all have places on our farm that are places we go when things are tough, or that we take visitors when they turn up on farm. We all have deep connection to our land and places within it that we like to spend time.
Sam’s tip practical tip when it comes to biodiversity and conservation is to start by focusing your energy on the place where you like to spend time. This not only flows into the enjoyment that you get from that place, but it provides a strong catalyst and platform from which to continue biodiversity and conservation work into the future.
Choose that place where you like to spend time and focus your time and energy now on rejuvenating that because that’s the place we like to be, and once we fall in love with the regeneration work that we’ve done in that space it’s pretty easy to move on to the next bit and the next and the next, but after that. But I think following the places that we care about, you’ve got that one spot and you’re like I actually kind of like this spot too. So, to me it’s about following those places we care about.
I’ve got a farmer up here, Laura Watson, that’s just regenerated a wetland up here that she likes to spend time with her dad and her kids and her husband in and around. And she was like, that’s just where we hang out as a family. So that was a spot, and now she’s turned it into an incredible wetland. And guess what? The birds have all started turning up there like, highly endangered birds are starting to turn up there. And they’re going, huh, I wonder why that is. Maybe they like spending time there too.