A way forward: land use change in Aotearoa — LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AOTEAROA

Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment | Te Kaitiaki Taiao a Te Whare Pāremata

We need to change the way we use our land if we are to hold the line on environmental quality, let alone improve it. In Aotearoa New Zealand, land use has been changing since humans first arrived, and it continues today.

What our future landscapes will look like, and the state of their environmental health, will depend on at least two things. A changing climate will force changes to what we do where on the land – and how we do it. And then there will be the changes that flow from land use decisions. These are driven by everything from how we connect to the land, to environmental and planning regulations, who we trade with and changing consumer preferences abroad.

The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment’s report, Going with the grain: Changing land uses to fit a changing landscape , aims to clarify the multiple environmental challenges rural New Zealand faces, and some of the difficult trade-offs that meeting them will throw up.

To meet our environmental goals, the way we view landscapes and use land must continue to change. The report gives a sense of the possible direction of travel if we are serious about responding to the challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss and water quality. We need to respond in a way that is sensitive to the economic, social and cultural viability of our regions.

While there are differing views on future land use change in New Zealand, the vast majority of us want the same outcomes:

resilient landscapes that can be passed on to our mokopuna and future generations
land that is rich in biodiversity and waterways that are healthy and have strong mauri
improvements to the environmental footprint of our land-based industries.

These outcomes are uncontroversial. The big questions are around how we can achieve this change in a way that:

considers environmental challenges within the wider social, cultural and economic realities that people who are being asked to make changes must face
distributes the costs fairly
ensures transparency and accountability in decision making.

Conversations around land use change are already happening across Aotearoa as rural communities confront the significant challenges posed by climate change and issues related to the current direction of change.

So, what is standing in the way? And how do we plot a way forward?

Read Going with the Grain

A way forward

There are no ready answers to the many issues posed here. That is not to be expected. But equally, we cannot avoid asking the hard questions.

Land uses will need to change in some places if environmental impacts are to be reduced and the mauri of the wai and the whenua is to be protected and restored. The social and economic impacts of any transition will vary depending on how it is managed and the policies put in place to support the people affected.

The scale of change needed will vary across the country. At one end of the spectrum, changes to management practices within the same farm system might be all that is required. At the other end is wholesale change from one specific land use to another. In between, there may be land use change required in specific vulnerable ‘hotspots’ within an area.

Photo credit: Danielle Eagle - Unsplash.

As a nation, we need to decide how we manage that change and the impacts it will have on our people, environment and economy. These decisions will not be easy, but failure to confront land use issues will not make them disappear – it will simply commit us further to degrading our environment.

The hard questions about rural sustainability and the need to change the way we use land need to be addressed by mana whenua, farmers, rural communities, local authorities, central government agencies and those who benefit from our land and all that it provides.

The decisions we make today will determine the state of land that gets passed on to the next generation. Will our great grandchildren swim in the streams we played in as kids? Will they hear the same chorus of birdsong when they walk through the bush on the farm or whenua? Will the land they inherit be resilient to the impacts of a changing climate and economy?

Land use change will be difficult – but the sooner we get started on addressing these issues, the better

Going with the grain , Exploring land use change and the summary document provide new ways of thinking about and responding to the challenges of land use change in Aotearoa New Zealand. The Commissioner hopes his findings will bring new life to an issue that has been stuck in the too-hard basket.