26 August 2008 Prioritising environmental attention to be examined in Lincoln 'State of the Nation' address

Environmental challenges in today's world are so numerous, how do scientific investigators, policy advisors, policy makers and practitioners decide where to target resources?

It's a dilemma that New Zealand's Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Dr Jan Wright, will explore in Lincoln University's 10th annual public State of the Nation's Environment address this Thursday, 28 August.

The Commissioner's address is entitled "Prioritising Environmental Challenges: What Matters Most?" and that question will be at the heart of her presentation.

"Environmental concerns tend to be reactive," says Dr Wright. "The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment is in the fortunate position of being able to work with her staff to set their own work programmes, but this freedom and independence carries a responsibility to prioritise and carefully choose projects that can significantly improve our stewardship of the environment."

Venue for the address is Lincoln University's H12 Lecture Theatre in the Hilgendorf Building and the occasion starts at 4.30 and runs through until 6.00pm. Members of the public are welcome and admission is free.

The stature of this annual public address has been well set by the calibre of past presenters who have included Cabinet Ministers Sandra Lee and Marian Hobbs, Ministry Chief Executives Hugh Logan and Barry Carbon, lobbyist Guy Salmon, science institute CEO Gillian Wratt, and former Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Dr Morgan Williams, who was the opening speaker when Lincoln University's Professor of Nature Conservation Ian Spellerberg and associates founded the series in 1999.

Dr Wright has a direct past connection with Lincoln University as a staff member, from 1986 into the early 1990s, of the old Centre for Resource Management which was based on the campus.

Ian Collins, Communications Group, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand.