Tairāwhiti input lends community-led approach to document offering advice on responding to challenges

Renee Raroa

A new publication with practical advice for communities interested in undertaking a “just transition” process has been launched today by economic and policy research organisation Motu in Wellington.

Representatives from Te Weu Tairāwhiti and Rau Tipu Rau Ora contributed to the document.

The guide is to help communities and organisations run their own just transition processes in response to challenges like climate change, rapid technological change, employment changes in regions and the transition to renewable energy in a way that fairly shares both the positive and negative effects.

The resource has been developed with support from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

Te Weu Charitable Trust representatives Renee Raroa, Manu Caddie and Terrence Loomis contributed to the resource along with Harley Dibble from Rau Tipu Rau Ora, through a series of national Just Transition Dialogue workshops earlier in the year.

“We thought it was a useful process but early versions were too academic and policy focused to be very useful in our context,” said Te Weu trustee Renee Raroa.

“So our team certainly tried to make it more practical to ensure the guide included case studies, was focused on community-led processes and didn’t rely on one or two organisations controlling the whole thing.”

The local team have been working on a number of initiatives to progress a community-led just transition process for Tairāwhiti that was promoted by the Mana Taiao Tairāwhiti petition on regional land use in January and included in six recommendations from the land use inquiry report.

“More than 10 years ago we started Transition Tairāwhiti and did a lot of good planning and some good actions came out of that process” said Manu Caddie.

“Things have changed a lot in terms of what industries we can and can’t rely on for the future of the region and the urgency of building local resilience is now hitting home.”

“A just transition for Tairāwhiti will ensure that we prioritise employment transition from pine plantations and pasture to pest control, indigenous forestry and new industries so the workers in traditional sectors are supported to transfer their skills into more sustainable land use.”

Te Weu recently hosted a workshop with researchers from around the country to look at the growth of the indigenous bioeconomy in Tairāwhiti. A number of case studies have been profiled on the Te Weu website.

■ As part of launching the guide, Motu will be holding a free webinar on Monday 7 August from 12.30 to 2pm. Registration will be on Eventbrite.