Collaborative Environmental Activities

As a result of a national seminar we held on Water, as part of an Alliance initiative in 2003, different activities have taken place associated with the ecology of water and land management.

In the Lake Taupo region, an indigenous committee and a government agency have developed protocols for an effective collaboration on land management which support cultural safeguards associated with the land and the commercial operations of the government department. A research project to investigate this project as a case study has been able to link with the Charter initiative and bring the concept of responsibility as a theme of the project.

Another project is the Waihora/Lake Ellesmere restoration, in the South island, with planting and enhancement of the biodiversity. Lincoln University and Community participants have come together and created exposure to the environmental activity through schools art competition, musical performance and a food and wine gathering.
During a fieldwork Saturday there was an opportunity to bring knowledge of care for waterways that came directly from the seminar, and open the way to a method of stewardship of water that preserves its quality. Water management through pipes and canals, carrying water bodies in straight lines brings deoxygenation and degeneration, whereas naturally occurring waterways are designed for coolness and water vitality.

Waihora is out toward the horizon. Its older name is Te Kete Ika o Rakaihautu –more of a certificate of title name – the great fish basket of Rakaihautu. Te Hapua o Ahuriri (which is where we are working) is near an old pa site of Ngäi Te Ruahikihiki

Waihora Renaissance day – the restorative planting aimed at planting natives which would have been in the area in pre-european times, the seedlings were raised in nearby conditions to help ensure their survival in the frosts the area experiences. 30 of us planted 1500 plants! Adverse conditions are now a feature of the lake, (lowered levels through draining for farmland and runoff etc) mean that the weed cannot now re- establish itself. It is the long term dream of Ngati Moki people at Taumutu, to be able to spear Patiki (flounder) in the traditional way, by wading and spotting the patiki through the clear water, then spearing it.