1. Sustainable management of the Mackenzie Country’s freshwater resources – a huge challenge
Ken Hughey, Department of Environmental Management
Lecture to St Andrews College, 23rd March 2015

2. Our surveys of New Zealanders show that most people want this, but …

3. They also want … A vibrant economy with diverse economic opportunities
A rich social fabric with lots of Jobs
Good incomes
A good health system etc
Respect for the Treaty of Waitangi
Which is challenging for a country so far from everywhere where the natural environment (and its people) are our greatest resource.

4. Within this context, NZ’s most water dependent region, Canterbury, finds itself in the midst of:
Post EQ recovery
A govt wanting exports doubled by 2025
A reliance on water to drive growth
Competing demands for water – hydro, irrigation, recreation, environment, tangata whenua, tourism
Major ongoing contests for water
The response: the Canterbury Water Management Strategy and non-democratic governance!

5. Canterbury’s water management zones
The zone that I am a committee member of

6. Ken’s ‘roughly informed’ assessment of water quantity/quality by zone in Canterbury

7. The landscapes are amazing and iconic for many NZers and tourists

8. Almost desert like in places

9. Shaping the Mackenzie Landscape – giving rise to a full range of ecosystem services: water from mountains to the sea
Uplift and erosion

10. Shaping the Mackenzie Landscape
Ice and water

11. Shaping the Mackenzie Landscape ; extensive pastoralism

12. Shaping the Mackenzie Landscape
Huts, homesteads, hotels and houses

13. Shaping the Mackenzie Landscape
Seeds, wire and seedlings

14. Shaping the Mackenzie Landscape
Machines and infrastructure

15. Landscape values Coherence and complementarity Expansive scale with
A rich mosaic of ecosystems
Legibility and
Powerful aesthetic qualities
Places and networks of heritage yet
An overall sense of naturalness
Coherence and complementarity

16. Landscape vulnerabilities
Ecosystem decline

17. Landscape vulnerabilities
Institutional Separation and Intensification

18. Landscape vulnerabilities – peri-urbanisation
Source: realestate.co.nz
Fragmentation

19. Landscape vulnerabilities
Sub urbanisation

20. Land (including water) scape vulnerabilities
Intensification

21. Landscape vulnerabilities
Disconnection of the global from the local

22. Landscape vulnerabilities
Unmanaged wildings

23. Lot’s of complementary values and activities – salmon farming, salmon and trout angling, hydro canals, amazing views!

24. Immense conservation values – in- and out-of-stream
Black-fronted tern
Black Stilt

25. Robust grasshopper

26. Shaping a way forward - principles
Deep structure
Landscape scale
Recognising competing values
Long view – in time and space
Resilient community institutions

27. Shaping the way forward - process
Mapping
Characterising
Valuing
Envisioning
Strategising
Acting
Working together
The Mackenzie Sustainable Futures Trust;
Canterbury Water Management Strategy- Zone Committees

28. Ultimately to manage water, and especially water quality, we need a yard stick, and that yard stick is now agreed to be Lake Benmore – if it is healthy then so are the water bodies of the Basin, generally speaking!

29. Conclusions
Traditional planning and management approaches have not really delivered in the Mackenzie Basin: some rivers have gone (Pukaki), other damm(n)ed (Waitaki)
New approaches required that:
Identify broad community desired outcomes
Embed these outcomes in statutory plans
Deliver sustainable management through collaborative and regulatory approaches
Are embedded in an adaptive management, learn as we go, approach
This new approach, and it is an experiment to delivering sustainable and integrated management, is the Canterbury Water Management Strategy
As an experiment it to requires monitoring and it requires broad community commitment from all sectors: extensive and intensive farming, tourism, fishing, tangata whenua, conservation, …
It is people of your age that will determine if we have been successful!