Trisia A Farrelly

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Professor (Associate) at Massey University

The evidence is clear that fossil fuels—and the fossil fuel industry and its enablers—are driving a multitude of interlinked crises that jeopardize the breadth and stability of life on Earth. Every stage of the fossil fuel life cycle—extraction, processing, transport, and combustion or conversion to petrochemical products—emits planet-heating green...

Science shows mounting global health risks associated with plastics life cycle pollution. Leveraging evidence and streamlining research to inform policy is critical to safeguarding people and planet. We conducted an electronic survey questionnaire, between 16th April and 16th August 2024, amongst United Nations government delegates developing the G...

Agriculture and food systems are major sources of plastic pollution but they are also vulnerable to their diverse lifecycle impacts. However, this problem is not well-recognized in global policy and scientific discourse, agendas, and monitoring of food systems. The United Nations-led Global Plastics Treaty, which has been under negotiation since 20...

The ubiquitous and global ecological footprint arising from the rapidly increasing rates of plastic production, use, and release into the environment is an important modern environmental issue. Of increasing concern are the risks associated with at least 16,000 chemicals present in plastics, some of which are known to be toxic, and which may leach...

The ongoing international negotiations on a global plastics treaty will have pivotal implications for future efforts to transform the plastic economy. This is essential since the current use of plastic in the economy impacts the environment beyond the planetary carrying capacity. To ensure that the forthcoming Treaty can provide the foundation for...

Brand names can be used to hold plastic companies accountable for their items found polluting the environment. We used data from a 5-year (2018–2022) worldwide (84 countries) program to identify brands found on plastic items in the environment through 1576 audit events. We found that 50% of items were unbranded, calling for mandated producer report...

The UN international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution (UNEA resolution 5/14) aims to reduce plastics pollution. However, midstream and downstream assessments show that optimizing waste management, removal technologies, and improved circularity is not sufficient to curb plastics pollution in the short-, mid- or long-term. Therefore, w...

Over the last three decades, a series of best practice principles have been advanced by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to guide national park management policy and practice. This study investigates how these best practice principles have informed the management of Zambia’s national parks. We performed qualitative and...

Plastic removal technologies can temporarily mitigate plastic accumulation at local scales, but evidence based criteria are needed in policies to ensure that they are feasible and that ecological benefits outweigh the costs. To reduce plastic pollution efficiently and economically, policy should prioritize regulating and reducing upstream productio...

Responding to a Science News story, Zouxia Long argues we should ”Begin ocean garbage cleanup immediately” (1) since removal outweighs direct impacts on organisms or species. This notion is unsubstantiated, and overlooks the potential long-term loss of ecosystem function and biodiversity from non-selective plastic removal technologies (PRTs), such...

This policy brief covers alternatives to conventional, durable fossil-based plastics. It addresses their potential advantages and disadvantages, limitations and risks as well as the role of the Global Plastics Treaty.

The Basel Plastic Waste Amendments reflect growing global concern about the illegal plastic waste trade as waste colonialism. Comprehensive analyses of plastic waste material sources, pathways, and fates are needed for effective plastic waste trade policy. Plastics waste flows from Palmerston North, New Zealand to Malaysia highlight potential gaps...

Plastics pollution is a global, relational, integrated, and intersectoral issue. Here, we undertook narrative analysis of semi-structured interviews with nineteen key plastic pollution decision-makers. They offered a contextual lens to understand challenges facing Pacific Island (Te Moananui) nations in preventing plastics pollution. We build on th...

A vast ocean rich with resources to maintain a sustainable livelihood surround Pacific Island Countries and Territories. In Fiji, coastal resources are a primary source of food, medicine, income and other necessities for livelihood security. Human-induced climate change places growing pressure on the quality of coastal resources due to the increase...

To eliminate plastic pollution, a holistic approach is needed

Geological resources are basic elements that have shaped both the course of human history and characteristics of human society. Protection of their imprint on our landscapes underlies the field of nature conservation known as geoconservation. Explicitly from 1991—when the term “geoheritage” was used at the First International Symposium on the Conse...

This study of a remote Aboriginal community in Australia’s Northern Territory in 2014 sought to understand diabetes from a local Aboriginal perspective. Participants drew on a variety of holistic healing methods in the absence of an individual or individuals identified as holding a healing role in the community. The study offers an alternative to t...

The rate of plastic pollution entering the environment is accelerating with plastic production predicted to increase by 40% over the next decade. Plastic pollution transcends territorial boundaries on ocean and air currents. Large Ocean Small Island Developing States (LOSIDS) are on the frontline of the plastics crisis and associated climate change...

Augmenting low income or subsistence lifestyles in developing countries with knowledge, skills and values to enable communities to live in a more sustainable manner is becoming increasingly important as the demands to simply survive increase. Consequently, education for sustainable development (ESD) has emerged strongly in recent years to become a...

There is virtually nowhere on Earth today that remains untouched by plastic and ecosystems are evolving to adapt to this new context. While plastics have revolutionized our modern world, new and often unforeseen effects of plastic and its production are continually being discovered. Plastics are entangled in multiple ecological and social crises, f...

This study aims to seek ways to prevent marine plastic pollution leakage in New Zealand’s commercial fin fishing industry supply chains. Drawing on a case study approach, this research investigates how sea and land-based plastic material flows are perceived by those working for commercial fishing company Moana NZ. It considers current global, regio...

The core finding of this report is that while a growing number of countries have implemented ambitious legislation to restrict the import and trade of the some of the most problematic plastics into the region, PICs are failing to address plastic pollution beyond waste management. Many countries have ratified, signed or acceded to regional and globa...

The management of plastic waste is a global problem which currently lacks a global solution. As one of the highest per capita producers of household waste in the developed world, New Zealand has a key role to play in addressing the plastics crisis at multiple levels of governance. This article analyses the various policy options available to the Ne...

The term social licence to operate is often deployed as a rhetorical device without reference to who grants a social licence or how one might determine whether, or to what extent, such a licence has been granted. Survey tools have been developed to assess social licence, but these have been used only by a few practitioners, mostly in the mining ind...

National parks provide a wide range of ecological, social and economic benefits. However, in some cases the establishment of national parks has also lead to the displacement of indigenous people, the disruption of their livelihoods, and ongoing social conflict. Northern Thailand's national parks are home to approximately one million indigenous peop...

The construction of discourse through choice of wording and sentence structure can affect power relations between people and groups. Social license to operate (SLO), broadly defined as the public's acceptance or approval of a company and its operations, is an emergent concept in New Zealand's marine economy. The way the public discourse around SLO...

New Zealand currently manages its annually-generated 99,000 tonnes of e-waste via voluntary product stewardship schemes. Limited data is available to determine the success of this approach. This lack of data is cited as the logic preventing the declaration of e-waste as a priority product by the Minister for the Environment which would trigger the...

This paper describes a ‘follow the thing’ methodology as applied to an ethnography of entanglements. This methodology allowed for a materially and politically nuanced understanding of Antioquia, Colombia’s response to mercury pollution. This pollution primarily originates from the Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining (ASGM) industry where mercury...

Effective community participation is a topical issue in protected areas and heritage management. Community participation initiatives are considered to have great capacity to enhance conservation and provide community benefits. However, many previous studies have indicated that in spite of the acclaimed potential, there are minimal levels of communi...

Our next generations will need to work with the potential of the 4IR to first slow, and then eliminate, the environmental (and thus social and economic) harms of previous industrial revolutions if they are to realise any potential benefits. Educational managers have a responsibility to ensure our students have the skills and knowledge to do this. T...

Coastal hazard risk, compounded by climate change, is escalating. Efforts to address this challenge are fraught and ‘success’ is elusive. We focus on this impasse and recommend ways to improve understanding, reduce risk and enable adaptation. Two Aotearoa New Zealand coastal communities, Mercury Bay and Kennedy Bay, on the Coromandel Peninsula, ser...

Four academic mothers share their first foray into collective memory-work while exploring academic mother subjectivities located within tertiary education in New Zealand. Originating in education and gender studies, memory-work is currently an untapped research method in anthropology. The authors invite anthropologists to explore the value of colle...

Polystyrene (PS) is a petroleum‐based plastic made from styrene (vinyl benzene) monomer. Since it was first commercially produced in 1930, it has been used for a wide range of commercial, packaging and building purposes. In 2012, approximately 32.7 million tonnes of styrene were produced globally, and polystyrene is now a ubiquitous household item...

This paper provides a broad survey of existing literature on contemporary solid waste management (SWM) in the Pacific region to underscore an urgent and compelling need for improved SWM. Despite advances in waste management systems and funding for technical support and capacity building from a range of sources, waste continues to threaten public an...

The endangered Flatback Turtle (Natator depressus) is endemic to the continental shelf of northern Australia and is the only species of marine turtle with such a restricted geographical distribution. Most mature female Flatback Turtles show a high degree of fidelity to their chosen nesting beach, returning to the same beach within the same and succ...

This article aims to provide a broad overview of current debates around the safety of bisphenol A (BPA), a commonly used chemical in consumer products, and to argue for greater engagement by the New Zealand government and public with these debates. BPA acts as an endocrine disrupting chemical (EDC), a relatively new category of harmful chemicals th...

Food and food-related waste is a high priority in terms of waste minimisation in New Zealand. Over the summer of 2012–2013, a survey of 147 participants was conducted on a range of views and practices related to environmental challenges and understandings. The survey, undertaken in Palmerston North, New Zealand, captured a wide socio-demographic. T...

Much has been written about families and their influence on relationships and research in fieldwork. However, seldom has the absence of family in the field received analytical attention. The authors of this paper contribute to an emerging ‘anthropology of absence’ in a number of ways: We direct the focus of absence away from our participants to ref...

Talanoa has been defined as ‘talking about nothing in particular’, ‘chat’ or ‘gossip’. It is within the cultural milieu of talanoa that knowledge and emotions are shared and new knowledge is generated. Talanoa has recently been taken up by development researchers and others as a culturally appropriate research method in Pacific contexts. However, t...

There are diverse ways of knowing and learning. Learning is best understood within an individual's cultural milieu which then informs teaching practice. The spoken word is only one in a myriad ways in which opinions or desires can be expressed. In some cultures, the "loudest voice" is spoken in "silence. In this paper, "silent/absence" as passive r...

Since the colonial period, kerekere as an indigenous Fijian mode of exchange has been blamed for stunting the economic development of indigenous Fijians. It has often been reduced to ‘begging’ and it has been used in connection with terms such as ‘corruption‘, and ‘dependency‘. This article strives for a more balanced and culturally complex account...

Indigenous community-based ecotourism (ICBE) can only benefit from the insights of indigenous social entrepreneurship (ISE) literature when human – environment relationships such as the Fijian vanua are recognised.

Participatory development literature involving community-based ecotourism management (CBEM) has only recently addressed issues pertaining to indigenous governance and decision-making systems. This paper contributes to sustainable tourism by presenting local decision-making practices and issues arising from the perspective of the members of one vill...

As this report will show, culture is integral to achieving all objectives across the four pillars of the Pacific Plan. Culture is fundamental to sustainable development, and in the current climate of global economic recession it has the potential to contribute to economic growth and security through employment linked to services (d'Almeida 2009:2)....