Customary fisheries co-management within Aotearoa/New Zealand - Fact or Friction?

Abstract

The Ministry of Fisheries is tasked with managing Aotearoa/New Zealand's fisheries resources in a way and at a rate that provides for sustainable utilisation, and the wellbeing of communities whilst giving effect to the Crown's Treaty of Waitangi obligations. The Treaty of Waitangi provides a management framework that enables Maori to legitimately provide input and to participate within the decision-making processes of managing fisheries resources. However, this input and participation is context specific and suffers from two divergent philosophies on what a partnership entails and how it should be given effect. Maori perceive their partnership relativity as a collaborative or co-management approach, whilst the Ministry of Fisheries view partnership as a co-operative approach made up of multi-stakeholder groups with fisheries interests and property rights. Maori determine that their input as co-managers has the ability to provide significant environmental and social benefits, as well as increasing the quality of fisheries management decisions by utilising their traditional ecological knowledge. The issue therefore becomes one of whether both management regimes are able to be integrated in a way that provides for a robust co-management framework thereby truly giving effect to Aotearoa/New Zealand's duality.