29 November 2011

Land & Water Symposium Reveals Strategy

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council will be holding a Regional Land and Water Symposium tomorrow, Wednesday 30 November.

The symposium will introduce the new Land and Water Management Strategy which developed out of the regional water symposium the Regional Council held in November last year.

Participants in the last symposium have been invited back to be updated on the contents of the strategy. They will hear from some of the external reference group who volunteered to help develop the strategy with the Regional Council. The group included twenty-one people with a fair representation across various business and primary sector groups, plus local and government authorities.

Water quantity was the initial focus for the group, but land use and water quality remained a concern and has been included in the new regional strategy.

“The strategy is a great progression in a year and, thanks to the valuable contribution of some participants, we now have a strategy that can be used by Councils in developing resource planning and initiatives, and also be used by farmers, growers, fishers and environmentalists so we are all working off the same page.” said Strategic Development Group Manager, Helen Codlin.

“The aim of the symposium is to present the Regional Land and Water Management Strategy and to give people an opportunity to discuss it, what they like or what they think is missing. It is important to understand that the Strategy is not the end of the conversation, it is just the start.”

Some of the reference group will share their experiences of collaborating on the strategy and what they consider to be areas for further attention.

A case study on the Tukituki River will be discussed to outline the complexity of issues in that catchment and the potential gains and challenges of the storage dam project.

The symposium will be followed by an introductory Biodiversity workshop. The aim is to start a similar collaborative process with participants starting with a scoping exercise of what biodiversity means to different people.

The symposium will be held at the War Memorial Centre in Napier and there is still an opportunity for anyone who would like to take part in the symposium to contact the Regional Council.

ENDS

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