Te Taiao
Since the early 1990s the Te Taiao team has advocated and fought for our taonga within our awa, roto, moana and whenua, making incremental gains in terms of reconnection of our whānau with these special places and looking to support hapū at place to further develop their relationship with Te Taiao.
Initially these actions were built upon the Resource Management Act 1991 and through relationship building with regional and local authorities we have grown that influence to the position of an affected party within the consents process. At the same time, through participation within the planning review processes, the Taiao Unit has been able to create Papakāinga policies and support Te Mana o Te Wai frameworks, along with Treaty Settlement provisions around statutory acknowledgements for all our rivers and coastline as well as important Crown reserves.
In collaboration with our whānaunga (i.e. Ngāti Rangi and Te Iwi o Whanganui), Te Waiu o Te Ika and Te Awa Tupua have been established to provide further protection to our Whangaehu and Whanganui catchments.
These building blocks across several decades have positioned the Taiao Service to develop a relational approach to working with consent applicants to lessen the impact of those developments upon our waterways. Consents vary greatly in scale, purpose and effects. The Taiao Unit is now looking to self-fund these services by charging applicants for their time.
Alongside that, the Taiao Unit will also work with our hapū on funded projects to enhance capability and capacity in te taiao. This will include policy development at all levels within the Rūnanga and others, such as hapū freshwater plans.
