Citizen-led environment management : learning from the ’bush restorers’

Abstract

1. The resource management issue under consideration is the conservation and ecological restoration of natural lowland forest and its associated plant and animal communities (referred to here as native bush), which have considerable human-use and intrinsic values. 2. Within the issue of native bush conservation in New Zealand, the topic of this research is the phenomenon of citizens’ involvement as pro-active volunteers, tackling ‘bush restoration’ on public or trust-owned sites. This phenomenon is not rare but is little researched. Some key initial questions are: How extensive is citizen-led bush restoration as a means of environmental management? What motivates the volunteers and what factors advance or hinder their efforts? Why is this phenomenon not more widespread in New Zealand society, and how could it be? 3. The research strategy adopted to address the selected topic is firstly a scoping study to define the issue in context, including multi-disciplinary literature review, followed by a structured qualitative telephone survey of a representative sample of restoration project spokespeople. An analysis of these information sources provides insights and understanding related to the research questions, and raises additional questions. 4. Conclusions offer a potential contribution to the national and local-scale policy agenda in support of citizen-led bush restoration. Recommendations seek to recognise the value of voluntary bush restoration, better enable the committed volunteers, promote new voluntary action and improve the skills of volunteers with a view to enhanced quality of work.