Indigenous communities and the co-management of natural resources : the case of New Zealand freshwater management

Abstract

The starting point for this study is a socially constructed problem: the progressive degradation of natural resources of significance to indigenous communities and the lack of effective participation by indigenous communities in their management. For many indigenous communities survival was traditionally dependent upon knowledge of natural resources and the ability to gather sustainability those resources from lands, waterbodies and the seas within tribal territories. Environmental sustainability and the long term wellbeing of indigenous communities were seen as one and the same thing. But following contact with exogenous groups, and until relatively recently, indigenous perspectives on environmental management were largely ignored. Dispute over ownership, access to management and use of natural resources have been sources of long standing grievance for indigenous communities throughout the world including Māori within New Zealand.

In the last decade co-management has been promoted as a means of ensuring the participation of indigenous communities in contemporary resource management. But what is meant by co-management has been less clear.

This thesis posits that of the four possible definitions of co-management - namely dual management, cooperative management, collagorative management and community based management - it is collaborative management that promises the greatest benefits for indigenous populations and the environment alike. An analytical framework is developed which acknowledges the theories brought to such collaboration by State agencies and Māori in New Zealand. A case example is then presented of the establishment of a collaborative management programme involving freshwater in the Taieri Catchment near Dunedin.

Experience of this case suggests that in addition to affirming progressively validated general principles governing collaborative environmental management, the requirement for trusted facilitators acting at the interface between State agency and indigenous groups is mandatory. It is concluded that the potential exists for the collaborative management of environmental resources by State and Māori in New Zealand but that the process has barely begun and requires investment in capacity building on the part of both parties.