Cross-cultural partners in conservation

The principles of kaitiakitanga (guardianship) of our environment have been around for centuries, but the formation of a nationwide collective of researchers from a wide range of disciplines, working in partnership with Mäori, is an innovative cross-cultural approach to conservation.

Te Tiaki Mahinga Kai's (TMK) mission is to help Mäori communities restore, protect and improve the environmental health of their rivers, estuaries and coasts, and to enhance the management of their customary fisheries.

The group, operating under the umbrella of Otago's Centre for the Study of Agriculture, Food and Environment (CSAFE), sees its role as a support network for communities trying to preserve their mahinga kai (cultural harvests).

Researchers will help people navigate their way through the scientific, academic and bureaucratic obstacles to set up and manage mataitai and taiapure reserves, community-driven conservation projects.

These types of reserves are emerging as the main vehicle for Mäori to exercise kaitiakitanga of their marine resources. Currently there are eight taiapure and six mataitai gazetted throughout the country, with at least another 22 applications in the pipeline.

To date the establishment of some reserves has involved very acrimonious debate, says CSAFE co-director and TMK project leader Associate Professor Henrik Moller.

"When people fight or have their own identity and rights challenged, it's very unlikely you'll get lasting environmental care, so really sustainability is as much about social equity as it is about acting honourably and in an ecologically sustainable way," he says. "The only lasting solutions will be fair ones."

But establishing reserves is just the first step, Moller says. After negotiating a difficult political process to establish these reserves, many local communities are stalled by exhaustion and lack of resources.

"One of the myths is that somehow if you create a reserve, it's then safe, whereas the ecological reality is that a reserve is just the beginning of a longer journey where you have to actively manage it to get the goals you want."

There are huge pressures on our coasts with kaimoana (seafood) resources generally depleted or exhausted, a burgeoning population, enormous problems of coastal development, climate change and "invasive species coming in left, right and centre", he says.

TMK's researchers will use their broad range of skills to empower local communities to help themselves, solve problems and act as a link to other academic or national institutions.

FUNDING
Foundation for Research, Science and Technology
Ngäi Tahu
Dunedin City Council
University of Otago Division of Sciences