Investigating community : imperatives for but constraints against land use change in the Mackenzie / Waitaki Basin

Abstract

This report uses an ethnographic approach to provide a description and analysis of the social context of land use change in the Mackenzie/Waitaki Basin. In order to understand current land use dynamics it begins by reviewing the history of land use change, identifying land user groups, and describing the environmental and political factors that influence land use. The report then accounts for landholders' attitudes to farming and current trends in intensification and diversification, using first-hand quotations to illustrate points of view. The main findings are centred on land use dynamics, showing how these are based on specific landholder values and regional distinctions. Further, landholders perceive that they are in conflict with a number of groups but notably bureaucracy and government, and environmentalists. The use of the words 'community' and 'sustainability' among landholders in the Basin is examined. The report concludes by considering the policy implications of the findings, especially those policy issues that rest upon the questionable premise that there is, or can be, a consensus implied by the term 'community'.