Canterbury: Canterbury Water Management Strategy

Strategy and Stakeholder Engagement

In Canterbury, as with other regions in New Zealand, water is a vital and valued resource for a wide range of rural and urban interests. It is subject to diverse and often conflicting uses. The rapid growth of irrigation has been a contentious issue, together with the maintenance of water quality in streams and rivers.

In 2008 Environment Canterbury asked HenleyHutchings to develop and implement a programme of community engagement and consultation to rebuild public and stakeholder confidence in the management of water. We worked with a diverse team of specialists to develop a strategy that all parties bought into, which had a strong grass-roots impact and struck a chord with both rural and urban populations.

We continue to be involved in contributing to setting direction for water management in Canterbury and have carried that experience to several other parts of the country.

Outcomes

• The development of the Canterbury Water Management Strategy 2009 which is now a leading approach in water management nationally.

• We are currently undertaking a ten year review of that strategy on behalf of the Council.

Skills

• Analysis – extensive research and in-depth stakeholder interviews within mining industry

• Strategy – supporting early strategy development and policy development

• Communications – helping draw complex commercial and technical material into a cohesive tool for industry, development of media reponse toolkit

• Facilitation – facilitating strategy workshops with the Board and senior management

• Collaboration – with CRL Energy and other industry experts to gather background information to support the strategy development process

• Design: desktop e-publishing

Team