Towards an 'effective' relationship : landcare groups and local authorities working together to monitor indigenous vegetation on private land

Abstract

The idea of government agencies and communities working together to develop resource management strategies is by no means new. These community-based approaches to resource management decision-making are increasingly becoming popular in New Zealand, especially since the implementation of the Resource Management Act (RMA) 1991. Developing relationships between decision-makers and community members are important because community members are becoming more vocal in their stance against the regulatory system that is still evident in our environmental legislation. There is support for the concept of involving the community in managing their local environment, with many community groups willing to volunteer their time to environmental issues whether it be the control of bovine tuberculosis, cleaning up a local stream or taking weather readings.

This report is based on the underlying issue of the "effective" contribution that landcare groups can make to monitoring aspects of remnant areas of native bush or indigenous vegetation on private land in partnership with the local authorities. A case study example will be used as the basis for this report which involves the Foothills Landcare group and the Ashburton District Council (see Textbox 1). A partnership such as this would benefit both parties but especially the local authorities who are struggling to carry out their legislative responsibility under the RMA to monitor the state of indigenous vegetation on private land. This struggle may be linked to a lack of resources, the long process of developing district plans, confusion over their exact responsibilities under the RMA, or it is not known how to best use the resources that Landcare groups and other community groups can offer. A Landcare group may have reason to become involved with monitoring as identifying environmental trends in vegetation growth or decline can have implications for management practices on their properties.

The overall aim of this report is, therefore, to establish a process for an effective working relationship between landcare groups and territorial local authorities when monitoring indigenous vegetation on private land. This will be achieved by satisfying a number of objectives. A model for establishing an 'effective' relationship will be developed and applied to the case study. The model is then critiqued from an integrated environmental management perspective.