Te Whanganui-a-Orotū – Estuary case study | Rangahau whakapūaho wahapū.
- Author
- Ministry for the Environment
- Year
- 2024
- Publisher / Organisation
- Ministry for the Environment, Wellington
- Pages
- 15 pp
- Keywords
- Ahuriri
- Summary
- In 2022, the Ministry for the Environment joined forces with the Sustainable Seas National Science Challenge (Sustainable Seas) to explore how it might manage Aotearoa New Zealand estuaries in a more nuanced way. The mission of Sustainable Seas was to develop tools and guidance for ecosystem-based management (EBM). The aim of EBM is to manage the marine environment in a holistic and inclusive way that balances use and protection to better inform coastal monitoring and management across Aotearoa. Officials corresponded with regional authorities and selected three case study estuaries. These case studies were based on data availability, community interest and ecological features, to test the outputs of Sustainable Seas in a real-world setting. The three estuaries selected were: • Whangateau Estuary (Auckland) • Kakanui Estuary (Otago) • Te Whanganui-a-Orotū/Ahuriri Estuary (Hawke’s Bay). The intention of the project was to encourage and support estuarine management at place by providing a tailored ‘toolbox’ to help iwi and hapū, councils and communities. In 2023–24 we held virtual hui with mana whenua and stakeholders to discuss their values and aspirations for their estuary. The Ministry for the Environment then generated a high-level summary of the values and aspirations raised. Sustainable Seas drew on the guidance and methodologies for EBM developed over the past 8 years to assemble a toolbox for each estuary. Officials presented the draft toolboxes at place and discussed attendees’ concerns around implementation and barriers to the management of their estuary to inform this report.