Kindling tikanga environmentalism : the common ground of native culture and democratic citizenship

Abstract

An innovative regime combining native culture and democracy in community fisheries management has crystallized in New Zealand. While researchers have looked into comanagement of natural resources between communities and governments, and various studies have isolated indigenous ecologies on one hand and highlighted environmentalism in modem society on another, no substantial research has gauged the opportunities for indigenous peoples and the wider citizenry of democratic-capitalistic societies to collaborate as cultures in concert with the environment. This study establishes an international context for such an assessment and explores a national foundation for this cooperation based on tribal heritage and democratic institutions pertaining to environmental law. The primary research, involving local experimentation, concerns the viability of the novel cooperative endeavour called Taiapure-local fishery. I discovered in the principal trial communities in the North and South Islands that its design is compelling if properly understood. Yet the salience of the regime is hampered by external pressures from the commercial fishing industry, control by central government, and by internal lack of solidarity and trust. I conclude that human relationships and the leadership of local people are the keys to success of the New Zealand model and its wider dynamics.