Work on the trial of a natural burial site in Dunedin is progressing, but more investigation is needed before any decisions will be made about when or where the trial will be held.
Dunedin City Council staff have been meeting parties interested in natural burials, including funeral directors, Advocates of Natural Burials Dunedin, and the Maori community.
A hui was held this week with the latter two groups and council staff.
Reserves and recreation planning team leader Paulien Leijnse said the meetings had identified issues that needed to be worked through.
These included things like soil testing, defining acceptable plantings and burial materials and required health and safety measures and how the public would be able to locate individual burial sites.
Investigations had begun to identify an appropriate site for the trial and, while any decisions were some way off, Green Park cemetery was at the top of the list.
Natural burials involve placing bodies in shallow graves - shrouded or in caskets of untreated materials - where plots have nutrient-rich soils and trees and plantings to encourage natural decomposition.
Graves would initially be marked with a wooden cross that would not be replaced once decomposed, and family plots were not possible, Ms Leijnse said.
She could not say when a staff report for councillors would be ready.
