The Waipaoa Catchment Within the East Coast Region
This region has a long history of land use change, associated at first with the development of pastoral agriculture and later with a shift from pastoral farming to exotic plantation forestry. Both shifts have forced consequent changes on the nature of the regional community and on the relationships within that community. These occurred either directly, where a change in land use impacted on the need for specific services, or indirectly where severe climatic events modified land use, in turn impacting on community resources.
The major changes in land use including the move away from sheep and cattle farming to forestry have occurred both in response to market demands and for reasons of environmental management. Initially, government subsidies were a significant factor in decisions to plant trees to protect the land. Now, the East Coast Forestry Project (under which grants are given for the conversion of erosion prone agricultural land to plantation forestry and itself the successor to schemes dating back some decades) is one of the few remaining land-related subsidy programmes in New Zealand. Since the early to mid 1990s, commercial forestry plantations have become a significant land use in some parts of the area.
Agricultural servicing industries have also changed in the 1990s. Several large food processing plants have closed, both reflecting and exacerbating the decline in agricultural production in theregion.
Tension between different land users has been caused by these changes. Many farmers see the forestry companies as ‘bad neighbours’ because of the different requirements of forest and pastoral farming and because of their ‘lack of community involvement’. Forestry is broadly viewed by the farmers as having a negative impact on the community’s size, structure and economic well being. Despite these strictures, many pastoral farmers have themselves diversified into forestry to some extent as a form of economic diversification, for flood control reasons or to reduce the threat of soil erosion.
Other issues related to changes in land use include fear about the long-term agricultural viability of the region because of soil erosion, the increasing number of life-style blocks being developed on farm land and the increasing price of land for agricultural uses. These kinds of issues are seen by the rural population both positively and negatively. Some emphasise the benefits secured by those who gain additional income or profits from changes, others believe that the community as a whole loses from the decline in the agricultural economy.
The linkages of event and land use change are shown diagrammatically at Figure 1.
Figure 1: Links & Land Use Change
These issues make the Waipaoa Catchment a microcosm of much of rural New Zealand. For the purposes of the multistakeholder analysis of land use change, the Waipaoa Catchment offered a number of additional distinct advantages:
- the area is a distinct ecosytem in which there is recognition of the interdependencies of different types of land use;
- the area has large areas of erodible soils, forcing land use change for sustainable reasons;
- there is an active afforestation process which is coming into conflict with other land uses;
- the different uses of the land reflect different economic and social trends and show differing economic viability;
- there is some conflict within the community itself over alternative land uses;
- there are diverse views of the area’s economic future;
- there is a relatively large Maori community with, in some cases, different positions and cultural values relating to land use;
- the community was aware of the issues and was prepared to participate in the project; and
- there is extensive information on the area.
Contact for Enquiries
Rural Affairs Coordinator
Sector Performance Policy
MAF Policy
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
PO Box 2526
Wellington
NEW ZEALAND
Phone: +64 4 894 0675
Fax: +64 4 4 894 0745
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