Many hands make light work
When we think about our environment in Aotearoa/New Zealand and those who care for it most, I think we would all agree that:
1. We live in one of the most beautiful countries on earth;
2. We need to look after these beautiful places;
3. We should empower those who care for them on our behalf, as this work is essential for many reasons.
It’s also probably easy to get consensus on the fact that Wānaka and its lakes, rivers and snowy mountains are some of the most exceptional landscapes in Aotearoa/New Zealand. What might not be so well known is that there are many Iwi, communities, organisations and volunteers involved in the care of this area, each doing similar things in different ways (or having different ways of doing similar things).
What is at the heart of successful community collaboration?
WAI Wānaka and its many collaboration partners are driven by passion. When you meet this team, you are immediately struck with this 110%; their passion for their work, their place, the environment and community; the importance they place on ‘sharing knowledge’ with their partners and others working in similar ways across sectors; and always a ‘willingness to learn’ from others, with a line of sight on new ideas, innovation and continuous improvement while they create change.
The point of difference for this collaboration is their ‘whole’ approach to creating change:
1. The whole of community - relationships across and between the rural, urban, tourism and business sectors, fostering cross-pollination of ideas;
2. The whole of basin – rolling out interconnected environmental strategies across all land types;
3. Community Catchment Plan – developed with multi-stakeholder buy-in, providing a robust roadmap for delivering action;
4. Ability and willingness to pilot new ways and approaches to doing things.
This collaboration journey started with three groups and has grown organically over time. Covid-19 and the Jobs for Nature programme presented WAI Wānaka with the opportunity to progress and scale work in the region at a rate that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise, leading to more purposeful collaboration.
Joined up and integrated solutions for Te Tai Ao/Natural Environment
Stakeholders, including Ministry for the Environment and Weave – Working Together (Weave), support the connection work needed to figure out how to leverage learnings and effect enduring community led-change and outcomes. Weave initially provided seed funding to develop a Collaboration Plan to examine what was needed to achieve transformational change for Te Tai Ao. Phase 1 of this plan is to scope Partnership and Collective Education models.
This collaboration story offers solutions to compelling, complex and challenging issues. Weave is excited to partner with this collaboration through the next phase of their journey to define the possibilities of the system change work they are undertaking. Please find more information on this important mahi here:
https://waiwanaka.nz/community-collaboration/