Our Land and Water funded to 2024!
 I’m delighted to announce that Our Land and Water will be fully funded for its second phase of work, from July 2019 to June 2024. This second installment of government funding has been approved at the maximum funding allowance of $69.3 million.
We welcome the certainty this funding offers and look forward to further developing our research portfolio and investment mechanisms to deliver impactful solutions over the next 5.5 years. Our research priorities for this period are outlined in our Future Strategy for 2019-2024, Wai Ora, Whenua Ora, Tangata Ora, available on our website (PDF).
After just 2.5 years of operation, Our Land and Water has made good progress, with 31 research projects either completed or currently underway, delivering 43 journal publications, and numerous reports, workshops and presentations where we have shared our work with partners, stakeholders and communities of interest.
We’ve co-developed research with iwi, industry bodies and resource managers such as regional councils, and our research has fed into initiatives like Beef + Lamb NZ’s country-of-origin brand Taste Pure Nature. We are also seeing signs that our research is starting to have an influence on national and regional policies.
We’re pleased that a second phase of funding has been granted to each of the 11 National Science Challenges, following positive mid-way independent reviews of each Challenge. “Each Challenge is delivering excellent, collaborative research programmes that have significant potential for major and enduring benefits for New Zealand,” said Megan Woods, Minister of Research, Science and Innovation, when making the announcement on Saturday. “I’m delighted to see that the Challenges are fundamentally changing the culture of how science is being undertaken in New Zealand.”
There is much to be done. We are looking forward to the opportunity to work even more closely with our stakeholders to ensure our work has maximum impact. We are also committed to building stronger relationships with Māori partners so that our research continues to draw strength from Te Ao Māori, the Māori world view. We are grateful for your interest and support for Our Land and Water so far, and look forward to further conversation, collaboration and connection.
Ngā mihi nui,
Ken Taylor
Director, Our Land and Water National Science Challenge
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Our goals
Our Land and Water has a clear vision of a future in which catchments contain mosaics of land uses that are more resilient, healthy and prosperous than they are today. Our research areas for our second phase of work will focus on 3 future state goals:
- The land and water in our productive environment is in a state that realises our values as New Zealanders and meets the expectations of those abroad. Decisions on individual land-use change and management practices are able to be made with confidence, leading to measurable and substantial improvements in catchment land and water quality.
- We use our land and water to produce products with high value to consumers that we capture and share with producers. Compared to now, at least 20% more economic value is shared with producers who manage their land in a way that ranks highly (top 20%) when assessed against environmental, social and cultural indicators.
- We all see ourselves as having a guardianship role, proud of the way we have achieved the land and water outcomes we desired. We are using intergenerational business and land-use models that are underpinned by principles of kaitiakitanga.
Over the next 5.5 years, we will measure our progress towards these outcomes with a clear plan to extend the legacy of Challenge research and impact beyond its scheduled end in 2024.
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Our work so far
The Review Panel to the Science Board's mid-way assessment of Our Land and Water was summarised by MBIE as follows:
"Science delivery is gaining momentum with good progress made in a relatively short period of time. For example, identification of sources of contaminants in streams is being used to inform stock fencing policy in Taranaki and a review of proposed fencing policies, nationally.
"At farm level, quantification of decreases in nitrogen and phosphorus leaching has demonstrated the potential of precision irrigation technologies to deliver considerable environmental benefits, and Māori in Northland are using maps and open databases generated by the Challenge to explore land-use options and economic potential of their land."
Our Land and Water welcomed constructive comments from the Review Panel, which included a request to develop a succinct statement that articulates what Vision Mātauranga means for the Challenge. The Panel also indicated they would like to see even greater engagement with “grass roots” producers and growers of primary products, and emphasised the importance for social scientists to be involved in research on barriers to uptake and effective incentives for improved uptake. We support these recommendations and will incorporate them as we firm up our work programmes for the post-June 2019 period.
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SCIENCE HIGHLIGHT
Maximising export returns from agri-foods
Credence attributes valued by consumers of New Zealand’s export agri-foods have the potential to increase returns to producers. Our Land and Water surveyed consumers of four products in two markets to identify the environmental, social and cultural attributes consumers were willing to pay for.
The four products, chosen in collaboration with stakeholders for their potential to create value that could be shared with producers, were: kiwifruit and yoghurt in Shanghai, and beef and wine in California.
Results showed that different market segments display value attributes differently, resulting in a wide range of ‘willingness-to-pay’. Such data underpin design or modification of value chains to identify and reward producers for sustainable on-farm practices.
Research results are being used by Beef + Lamb NZ to develop its ‘Red Meat Story’ for international markets, and to underpin its environment strategy to ensure industry claims are met.
The research was led by Lincoln University in collaboration with researchers in 6 agencies, and with 13 stakeholder organisations, 4 central government agencies, Ngai Tahu and 2 Māori businesses.
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