Enviro Hero award finalist

East Coast conservationist Graeme Atkins is among the three finalists in the Environmental Hero category at this year’s New Zealander of the Year Awards. Winners are to be announced at a gala dinner in Auckland on March 27. Picture by Diana Dobson/Black Balloon

East Coast conservationist Graeme Atkins has been named one of three finalists in the 2024 Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year Awards.

He is in the Ministry for the Environment Environmental Hero of the Year category, which recognises a person or group who have made a remarkable contribution to restoring the environment and/or protecting our unique species.

In his profile on the New Zealander of the Year Awards website, Mr Atkins (Ngāti Porou and Rongomaiwahine) is described as “a living embodiment of kaitiakitanga, whose significant contribution to flora conversation extends well beyond his decades of employment as a Department of Conservation ranger”.

Referred to as the “Maori David Attenborough of plants” in the conservation community, Graeme “has demonstrated sustained excellence in botanical discovery and played a pivotal role in protecting many rare plants such as ngutukākā (kakabeak, Clianthus maximus), mikokoi (native iris, Libertia cranwelliae), and putiputi o te ao pouri (Dactylanthus tailorii)”.

He  founded the Tairāwhiti Ngutukākā  conservation group which took on the work of replanting  and protecting ngutukākā (kakabeak) plants around Tairāwhiti.

Graeme also founded the hapu-led myrtle rust response project Te Whakapae Ururoa, tasked with tracking the spread and infestation at sites across a 27,800-hectare stretch of the East Coast shoreline identified as being critically vulnerable to myrtle rust infestation.

He was the 2020 winner of the Loder Cup awarded by the Minister of Conservation each year to a person or group to celebrate their outstanding conservation work in Aotearoa New Zealand.

The other Environmental Hero of the Year finalists are Auckland conservationist Nicola MacDonald and Waikato farmer Stu Muir.

The New Zealander of the Year Awards comprise seven categories and the winners will be announced at a gala event at the Auckland Viaduct Event Centre on March 27.

It will culminate in the naming of the New Zealander of the Year. The finalists are climate scientist Dr Jim Salnger, FIFA’s first-ever chief women’s football officer Sarai Bareman and internationally acclaimed Māori fashion designer Kiri Nathan.