Adapting Aotearoa

The Deep South Challenge has released the symposium report on the November 2023 conference, Adapting Aotearoa: Towards A Climate Resilient Land and Food System, held in collabroation with Resilience to Nature’s Challenges and Our Land and Water National Science Challenges.

The report, Can Incremental Change Support Systems-Level Adapation?, highlights an inherent tension between science and its practical implementation: Farmers feel as though researchers are asking for wholesale transformative change without understanding economic reality or appreciating the incremental adjustments that farmers make. Scientists feel as though farmers do not understand the severity of possible scenarios and therefore are not acting with the appropriate urgency or willingness to examine system change.

The Adapting Aotearoa event took place in Christchurch over two days, and saw participants across the agriculture, farming and food production sectors, meet and kōrero with academics and other professionals, to explore innovative solutions for building climate resilience and a deeper understanding of the urgency for adaptation in our agricultural practices.

We were privileged during the conference to hear from veteran journalist and climate change thinker Rod Oram, who tragically died this year (2024). The symposium report is dedicated to Rod Oram.

Sessions from the conference were recorded, and are now available. They include Rod’s kenote, and two expert panels.

More information:

• Can Incremental Change Support Systems-Level Adapation? report
• Video from the conference