NZ’s Catchment and Biodiversity Groups: Goals, Activities & Needs

In this webinar, Jim Sinner and Marc Tadaki of Cawthron will present the findings of a survey of catchment and biodiversity groups. The survey was conducted for the Ministry for the Environment to help understand the nature of local groups, what they are doing and what kinds of support they need.

The presentation will include recommendations for government, and Ilana Miller, Programme Director, Jobs for Nature, Ministry for the Environment, will comment on how they plan on using the report. There will be ample time for questions.

Speakers:

• Jim Sinner (Cawthron Institute) is the Manager of Cawthron’s Social Science group. He also leads a three-year research programme, funded by Our Land & Water National Science Challenge, on catchment groups as a form of collective responsibility for improving the health of NZ waterways. He has been studying and working within the NZ resource management system since 1991, with a particular interest in freshwater management.
• Marc Tadaki (Cawthron Institute) is a social scientist and human geographer whose research looks at formal and informal governance of water, the use of science in decision making, and the diverse values and relationships people have with freshwater places. He is leading a Marsden-funded study of freshwater monitoring and decision making, and co-leading a new 5-year research programme Fish Futures: preparing for novel freshwater ecosystems.
• Ed Challies (University of Canterbury) is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Canterbury Waterways Centre, where he teaches and conducts research on processes for participatory and collaborative environmental governance. Primarily focused on water governance, his interests also range from grassroots community initiatives and local projects to global flows and networks.
• Ilana Miller (Ministry for the Environment) is the director of the Jobs for Nature programme.

Further reading:

• Catchment and community environment groups in Aotearoa New Zealand: goals, activities and needs (Cawthron report for MfE, 2022)
• Waterways groups want simpler funding processes, survey finds (Cawthron website article)
• There were many questions there wasn't time to answer during the webinar, so please see this document of responses to those questions.
• New Models of Collective Responsibility research programme