‘Code Red for Earth’ – a clarion call to action
Debbie Tikao, President of the NZ Institute of Landscape Architects Tuia Pito Ora, returned from the 60th IFLA World Congress with a strengthened sense of the importance of maintaining urgent global conversations on the future-defining issue of climate change.
Participants in the 60th IFLA World Congress in Istanbul.
This was Debbie’s first attendance at a World Congress and first time in Türkiye. The Congress theme of ‘Red Code for Earth’ resounded loud and clear for her.
“I was struck by how the exact challenges being faced here in Aotearoa are common across so many other countries,” says Debbie.
“On the one hand it is obvious that most countries remain, much like ours, slow to respond to climate change and slow to put into action adaptation measures.
“On the other hand there was a clear message that came out of the congress that climate change adaptation needs to be led from the bottom up. Our communities must prepare, and they must prepare now.
“It was encouraging to see and hear about real-world examples of where landscape architects are drawing upon traditional knowledge systems to help communities be more resilient.
“This was especially evident in some of the short presentations I saw from China. I was also a judge for the IFLA Asia Pacific Awards, and it was exciting to see that the use of traditional knowledge was very evident through most of the applications I assessed”.
Debbie’s contributions at the Congress included spreading the word about the indigenous climate change mahi being exemplified by the Te Kori a te Kō programme in Akaroa Harbour, and attending the second day of the IFLA World Council held prior to the Congress.
“It was heartening to have many people come up to me after my presentation on Te Kori a te Kō to thank me for sharing this kōrero.
“It was equally special to see the impression made by Ashleigh Ward (Indigenous Design Principal, WSP New Zealand) when she delivered her keynote speech with beautiful insights into Te Ao Māori and practices which connect her to her whenua”.
Debbie Tikao with Bruno Marques and Ashleigh Ward at the 60th IFLA World Congress.
Being invited to see the workings of the IFLA World Council was a highlight.
“I took a lot away from new insights into how IFLA – under Bruno Marques’ leadership - has been building their relationship with the UN Environment Program (UNEP) and UN-Habitat as well as working to extend its reach with organisations such as the World Health Organisation (WHO).
“It was interesting to learn about the levels of support they can provide from supporting governments around the globe through to developing policy for building capacity in a wide range of environmental areas such as climate change adaptation, nature-based solutions, green infrastructure and beyond.
“Their websites provide a wealth of information and current data which can be useful in decision making and advocacy. The UN can also support nations at project level”.
Debbie notes that while international bodies like UNEP and UN-Habitat don’t have a strong presence in Aotearoa there are two international events coming up in 2025 that will be bringing significant global conversations to our door.
In October 2025 Ōtautahi Christchurch will be hosting the Adaptation Futures Conference 2025 – the flagship event of the UN World Adaptation Science programme (WASP).
And in November 2025 the NZ Centre for Sustainable Cities will host the 21st annual International Conference on Urban Health in Te Whanganui a Tara Wellington.
Debbie: “I took a lot from presentations at the IFLA World Council level on the relationship between urban areas, health and wellbeing.
“I doubt if anyone reading this article will find it ‘new’ news that the way in which we design our built environments can have an adverse or positive effect on our health and wellbeing.
“Given that, it was good to hear that WHO is currently working on policy guidance for governments around the world to support greener, more resilient and socially responsive built environments as a means to reduce the demand on our health systems”.
Immediately after the Congress Debbie and partner Pete were able to gain an extra boost to personal wellbeing by some travel around Türkiye and Greece.
“There was a strong aspect to this that was like travelling back in time,” says Debbie. “The beliefs, values and many thousands of years of ancient civilisations, were so layered, one above the other, all there to see and know”.
Being a landscape architect to the core, Debbie couldn’t help but absorb and marvel at the diversity and productivity of the landscape.
“Everything was dripping with food. Pomegranates, olives, fig trees, grapevines, sunflowers, citrus seemed to be everywhere … it seemed if it was soil then it was growing something that was edible. Even the ancient ruins were sprouting self-sown fig trees!”
“I came away feeling frustrated with our attachment to the English aesthetic and our fixation with mowing lawns, but I also came away inspired.
“I’ve long been preaching that we need to put our open spaces, berms and our own properties to work to grow food and support biodiversity. This is clearly not a new idea in Türkiye and Greece, where the traditional knowledge of these places and people are still very much in play, hence their soils are productive, their food full of flavour and nutrients.
“The other really cool thing I saw was the integration of solar farms into their agrarian landscape patterns. Solar farms were scattered everywhere, especially in Greece, and were integrated rather than overwhelming the existing agrarian character. In fact, apart from a few large olive groves, I saw no monocultures of anything. I also found traffic in Istanbul pretty fascinating as well, but that’s another topic altogether!”.
Solar panels in Greece. In 2022, solar power accounted for 12.6% of total electricity generation in Greece, up from 0.3% in 2010 and less than 0.1% in 2000. (Source: Wikipedia; Image: Photodune.net)
Returning to the experience of the IFLA Congress, Debbie was one of seven panelists on its second day to open up a discussion on transcending disciplinary boundaries and fostering a unified response to the world’s ecological crisis.
The panel was a response to the urgent banner of ‘Red Code for Earth’. Other panelists included Barış Işık (President of the Turkish Chamber of Landscape Architects), James Hayter (immediate past-President of IFLA), José Luís Cortes (immediate past-President of the International Union of Architects), Pietro Elisei (President of the International Society of City and Regional Planners), Mona Rady (Chair of the UN-Habitat Professional Forum) and Emilia Weckman (Aalto University, Finland).
Debbie: “The main point I made was that as professionals, we need to approach climate change adaption differently. This is not the time for professional jealousy, egos, silos or trying to capitalise on climate change. Yes, we all need to earn fees, but we also need to empower communities to adapt, to use their place-based knowledge and mātauranga Māori to prepare their whānau, their people and places for the immense hardships ahead. We need to get better at sharing our knowledge with the communities and iwi/hapū we work with”.
Debbie is mindful that in the period since the Congress the onslaught of climate change-related disasters around the globe, consisting of floods, fires, heatwaves, and droughts that cost lives and many billions of dollars, is continuing relentlessly.
Just this month, she notes, an international coalition led by Oregon State University scientists concluded in its annual report that the Earth's worsening vital signs indicate a "critical and unpredictable new phase of the climate crisis" and that decisive action is needed, and fast.
“So surely we need to be asking ourselves as landscape architects, how can I step up to be a climate change leader, not just at work and in words or social media, but at my own home and in my own community?”
Debbie says she left the 60th IFLA World Congress having made many new friends and contacts to continue sharing a dialogue with.
“On climate change my message is to keep reminding ourselves that we are all making this up as we go along. There is no one method or roadmap to climate change adaptation and mitigation.
“So we have to share with others what works and what hasn’t! We need to keep global conversations going, but we also need to get doing. We all have a responsibility to the whenua and to our future mokopuna”.
See also the President’s Update at NZILA