Māori and freshwater: a comparative study of freshwater co-management agreements in New Zealand

Abstract

Water governance is a significant local, regional, and national challenge that echoes parallel concerns held around the world. New Zealand has a unique approach to reconciliation between colonised Indigenous Peoples and state control, which is often cited by other Indigenous societies as a model worth investigating. Over the past 20 years, Treaty settlements have been established that have seen the ownership of the beds of lakes and rivers returned to their rightful iwi. This has created the need for co-management agreements in order to meet the needs and challenges facing effective management between Indigenous people and local government. Representative, adaptive, exercising rangatiratanga and the inclusion of Indigenous knowledge are all elements essential to co-management regimes in New Zealand. This research aims to identify how local authorities are responding to and providing co-management avenues for Māori involvement in freshwater governance and establish how effective the various co-management regimes studied are at incorporating Māori involvement. A comparative analysis of three co-management regimes in New Zealand, Te Waihora, Te Arawa Lakes and the Waikato River expose the effectiveness of co-management agreements as well as providing measures that the agreements could implement in order to have more effective co-management.