Award-winning young nature advocate inspires local students

Internationally recognised youth and nature advocate Nate Wilbourne facilitated a workshop earlier this month for 19 local students, who came together to collaborate on how they could be good kaitiaki of the awa and ngāhere both locally and globally.

Te Hōnonga a Iwi Activator Elouise Shuker says the workshop attendees from Kristin School, Rangitoto College, Albany Senior High School, and Westminster Christian School loved having space to discuss their challenges and priorities when it comes to leading environmental groups at school and volunteering for restoration projects.

“They discussed what environmental actions should be prioritised, the barriers they are facing, what support and resources they need, as well as how we might get more young people involved in conservation,” says Elouise.

The workshop also covered accessibility issues, how social media can be a great way to reach young people, making volunteering opportunities easy to find, and the need to balance many different environmental actions to make a meaningful difference.

Nate Wilbourne, originally from Nelson, is a youth advocate and environmentalist working at the intersection of climate action, youth participation and public policy. He has contributed to youth and environmental advocacy initiatives across New Zealand, Europe and parts of Asia, supporting young people to influence decision-making and shape sustainable futures.

Nate’s leadership and impact have been recognised internationally, and he was a semi-finalist for the 2025 and 2026 Young New Zealander of the Year Awards.

“It was inspiring for our young environmental leaders to connect with Nate, who is only 17 but has so much experience in environmental advocacy.

“This generation is not just the leaders of tomorrow — they’re leading today. This session was a great way for them to feel a sense of hope for the future.”

Nate also spoke at the Remembering Jane Goodall event held at Kristin School following the workshop, where more students and adult volunteers from local restoration projects came together to watch Think Like a Forest, a film about the incredible, diverse native forests in Aotearoa and all their benefits. 

It presented a vision for a regenerative future where humans can stop the destruction of nature and take action to restore and regenerate. Recloaking Papatūānuku is an ambitious, national-scale environmental initiative that will mobilise people to keep intact the old forests we have, eradicate predators, and carry out restoration of native bush across more than two million hectares of Aotearoa in the next 30 years. Read more