Sustaining the country : ideals, opportunities and imperatives for future rural landscapes

Abstract

Rural New Zealand is being transformed by a number of intersecting pressures and dynamics. Some are locally driven, but many are generated by changes taking place in the global economy. The 2007 State of the Environment Report (MfE 2007) has highlighted that these transformations have significant environmental consequences, some of which are coming into tension with the rising expectations of overseas consumers, as well as urban New Zealanders. This paper briefly reviews some historical and current factors that shape contemporary rural landscapes. It critiques the dominant model of environmental planning; identifies limitations and future challenges; and presents an alternative vision for the future. The main theme of the paper is to highlight the potential of landscape regeneration as an integrating vision. It argues for a national policy statement that establishes a strategy and targets for the regeneration of the ecological infrastructure of rural New Zealand. The aim is to create a long term matrix of sustainable and self regenerating ecosystems within which productive land uses can be undertaken. Landscape thinking and understanding becomes a means to stimulate the rural transformation needed to achieve sustainability goals.