Diversity in New Zealand

New Zealand is a land of vast cultural and biodiversity. One of the most beautiful and
green places in the world, it offers many different cultural experiences that include animals,
plants, people, and the great outdoors to those who live there and visit.
The human diversity is reflective of the history of New Zealand: a meeting of indigenous
people and European settlers. The percentage of the population who identified themselves as
belonging to the Mori ethnic group in 2013 was 14.9% or 598,605 people. Pacific people made
up 7.4 % of the population. Nearly three-quarters of the population (74%) identified themselves
as being of European ethnicity. Of this population, Maori and Pacific people are all very young.
The medium age in 2013 was 22 years old for both (Census, 2013).

New Zealand also claims a very unique and in many cases, one of a kind, biodiversity.
The native biodiversity is so special mainly because of the isolation of the islands in the ocean.

The high percentage of species found nowhere else in the world, make New Zealands native
biodiversity both special and highly vulnerable. The main reason is that, unlike other continents,
New Zealand was almost mammal-free until the European settlers came over and introduced
them. Nearly 100 native species, such as the threatened blue finned butterfish, live in rock pools
surrounding the shores, 60% of them are found only in New Zealand and nowhere else.
(Biodiversity, 2015).
New Zealand has a unique native biodiversity that is in serious danger due to many
factors. This country has experienced two major increases of human populations first the
Maori, then Europeans, this has greatly changed the biodiversity of the country for both the
better and worse. Although New Zealand was one of the last places on earth to be settled by
humans, it has one of the worst records of native biodiversity loss. Fire, land clearance,
overexploitation of resources, and introduced plants and animals have had a cumulative effect on
native biodiversity. As a result dozens of species have become extinct and an increasing number
are now threatened with extinction (Biodiversity, 2015).
New Zealand ranges in latitude from subtropical to sub Antarctic, and is a land of varying
landscapes, with rugged mountains, rolling hills and wide plains. Climate changes vastly differ
throughout the islands and plays a key role in biodiversity. Annual rainfall ranges from 12,000
millimeters (one of the highest rainfall rates in the world) on the western slopes of the Southern
Alps, to less than 300 millimeters in the rain shadow areas east of the Southern Alps. New
Zealand's forests have been greatly decreased, but, of the remaining forests, the most impressive
is the giant New Zealand kauri (Agathis australis), which are restricted to the far north (Bio
diversity, 2015).

Sources
1. 2013 Census QuickStats about national highlights. (n.d.). Retrieved April 7, 2015, from
http://www.stats.govt.nz/Census/2013-census/profile-and-summary-reports/quickstatsabout-national-highlights/cultural-diversity.aspx
2. Biodiversity in New Zealand - Biodiversity. (n.d.). Retrieved April 7, 2015, from
https://www.biodiversity.govt.nz/picture/biodiversity/
3. Biological diversity in New Zealand. (n.d.). Retrieved April 7, 2015, from
http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/150627/
4. (n.d.). Retrieved April 7, 2015, from

http://www.stats.govt.nz/~/media/Statistics/services/schools-corner/census/2013-censusactivities/graphs/nz-population-by-ethnic-group-2006.gif?w=516&h=358&as=1