Your view on our environment: here's what you told us

Waterways free from sediment, suitable for swimming, with good habitat for fish and insects and a region where you can hear birdsong. They’re a few of the things the community expect from good natural resource management, according to Greater Wellington’s public engagement report.

Almost 500 people attended 16 public workshops on natural resource management from July to October last year while another 800 responded to an online survey. Workshops were also held with some of the region’s mana whenua iwi and with local authorities.

The workshops and survey were the first stage in the development of a new regional plan to look after the region’s air, water, soils, biodiversity, coasts and landscape form.

During the workshops, participants were asked to rate the state of those natural resources and describe what they look like when they are well managed and when they were not so well managed.

They were also asked what the community and Greater Wellington (GW) could do to improve natural resource management.

Greater Wellington Policy Advisor – Community Engagement Terry Parminter says participants wanted GW to manage the region’s natural resources to provide for a wide number of values and uses, including good human health, recreation, passive experience, family and community activities and safe food.

“Participants wanted waterways to be freely flowing, suitable for swimming, a safe source of food and a good habitat for fish and other water creatures,” he said.

“In addition they wanted GW to work with farmers and people developing new subdivisions to keep sediment out of waterways. They expected GW to work closely with consent holders to help them understand and work within regional rules to avoid those rules being breached”.

The workshop results highlighted that biodiversity was equally important to both rural and urban communities for the special and unique experiences it provided people, such as being able to listen to bird song.

“Many groups wanted to see ecological corridors to enable communities to benefit from the linking together of the bird populations in recognised sanctuaries, such as Zealandia and Kapiti Island,” Dr Parminter said.

Te Upoko Taiao Co-Chairperson Chris Laidlaw said the comments and suggestions from the workshops, online survey participants, iwi and local authorities would underpin the next stage of public consultation on the regional plan beginning later this year.

“In the next stage of engagement we want people’s views on the planning approaches that we should be using. There is scope for a mixture of rules and less formal, non-regulatory approaches."

“Once again we want anyone with an interest in a healthy environment – whether you are involved in food gathering, recreation, farming, fishing or adventure sports – to join in. It doesn’t matter if you haven’t been involved so far," Cr Laidlaw said.

For more information, please contact Greater Wellington's media team

Report summary

The engagement report covers the results from 19 community workshops held across the Wellington region between July and October in 2010. There were 16 public workshops, one workshop for professional organisations working with natural resource management and two workshops at Owhiro School.
Over the same time period as the workshops were being held, an on-line survey was available for any members of the public to participate in electronically.

The results from six catchments in the Wellington region were considered in the report. All six catchments prioritised improvements in water quality, biodiversity and soils. In addition, the six catchments were uniquely concerned about:

In Eastern Wairarapa (includes the results from workshops in Tinui and Martinborough) – biosecurity, landuse planning, sewerage systems and landscape protection were important. Riparian strips and stormwater systems were relatively less important. They supported having financial incentives to implement natural resource policies.
In Ruamahanga (includes the results from the Masterton workshop) – biosecurity, sewerage systems and flood control were important. Maintaining their economic viability at the same time as they managed their natural resources was relatively important to them. Landscapes and stormwater systems were relatively less important. Providing opportunities for learning about resource management was considered an important policy tool along with having efficient consenting processes.
In Northern Wellington Harbour (includes the results from workshops in Upper Hutt, Lower Hutt and Wainuiomata) – transport, air quality, rubbish and litter management and riparian strips were important. Stormwater infrastructure was important. Resource management information and regulations were relatively less important to them.
In Southern Wellington Harbour (includes the results from workshops in Berhampore, Karori, Rongotai, Wellington City and Thorndon) – transport, air quality, rubbish and litter management were important. Stormwater infrastructure was important. Community gardens were relatively important as was having community care groups. Flood control was relatively unimportant.
In Porirua Harbour (includes the results from Johnsonville and Porirua East) – human health issues were important as were the core resources of water quality, biodiversity and harbour management. Stormwater infrastructure was important. Biosecurity was relatively unimportant. Providing opportunities for learning about resource management was considered an important policy tool, whereas enforcing rules was relatively unimportant.
In Western Coast (includes the results from Otaki, Paraparaumu and Paekakariki) – Air quality, development of subdivisions and coastal hazards were important. Providing opportunities for learning about resource management and support for community care groups were considered important policy tools.
Mana whenua iwi supported managing natural resource systems to strengthen their ecological integrity. They supported marae-based programmes for natural resource education and having protocols recognised for harvesting indigenous biological material from public areas, e.g. harakeke.
In the professional groups’ workshop (held in central Wellington) using natural resources efficiently for economic development was emphasised along with minimising consenting costs and requirements. The professionals were supportive of increased natural resource monitoring by Greater Wellington.
The school children (Owhiro Bay School) focussed on the restoration of natural resources in their catchment and the potential contribution of clean-green technologies in the future.