A couple of weeks ago, the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics completed work with a committee of educators, Non-Governmental Organizations, representatives from government agencies, scientists and others to create Leave No Trace New Zealand. The group, led by Chris North from the New Zealand Alpine Club and the University of Canterbury College of Education, contacted Leave No Trace three years ago to begin discussion about forming a Leave No Trace organization there.

North described that while the importance of environmental care was understood by many New Zealanders, the country had multiple and sometimes conflicting environmental care codes. The multitude of codes gave general instructions but rarely the explained further: specifically, the how to, what, and why.