Symposium Overview
If you were to ask 5 years ago how decisions were being made to manage New Zealand’s freshwater resources I think few could have envisaged where we are today. It is a real testament to the members of the Land and Water Forum, central government and the regional councils who recognised the issues we faced, worked diligently to identify new ways to manage our freshwater resources and are now putting those ideas and solutions into action.
We, in the Values, Monitoring and Outcomes Research Programme, have been incredibly privileged to have been a part of this journey. Not only have we been able to engage with those working to find new approaches and solutions, but we have been able to work alongside those councils who have bravely started this journey in new ways to make decisions and those iwi/hapū who have taken steps to articulate and integrate their values into environmental planning.
As part of this journey we have been able to document some of these learnings as well as work to provide new tools and approaches to facilitate how decisions are being made and policy instruments chosen, and how to track and evaluate policy progress.
We developed this Symposium to not only share our learnings but also provide the opportunity for others to engage with and ask questions of those who have already embraced the collaborative decision-making paradigm. For those who were unable to attend the Symposium, I hope this synthesis provides some useful insights to the day and the words of wisdom imparted by those who are part of this new journey.
Suzie Greenhalgh
(Values, Monitoring and Outcomes Research Programme Leader)