Case studies, hapū climate action described to Horizons group

Dr Huhana Smith heads Massey University's Whiti o Rehua School of Art and co-chairs the Climate Action Joint Committee. Photo / Supplied

Collection of food waste and the "rewilding" of city green spaces are two climate change moves Whanganui District Council is making, Mayor Hamish McDouall says.

He listed others at the online meeting of Horizons Regional Council's Climate Action Joint Committee on Monday. Whanganui was the first of seven councils to speak in the part of the meeting allocated to progress reports and McDouall is one of five who are making a regional climate plan.

The committee, which had its first meeting in April last year, consists of seven mayors from the Horizons region and seven appointed tāngata whenua members who received full voting rights in September.

One of the committee's jobs is to prepare the region's climate action plan. The working group of five consists of the two co-chairs, Horizons chairwoman Rachel Keedwell and Massey University's Dr Huhana Smith, McDouall and tāngata whenua members Jill Sheehy and Lorraine Stephenson.

The working party met monthly and was making good progress, Keedwell said.

"It's a nice size, and ideas are freely flowing."

It must feed ideas back to the larger group by July and finalise them before the local authority elections in October.

In other climate action, Massey University's Professor Bruce Glavovic has embarked on four case studies about climate adaptation. He's focusing on the Tangimoana, Pūtiki, Waitōtara and Rahotu communities.

Deep South Challenge is to be the main funder.

Glavovic has had initial talks with the communities, and especially with Pūtiki, Horizons principal strategy and policy adviser Tom Bowen said. Glavovic's Living with Uncertainty research project, which will take two years, gets fully under way this month.

The research findings would "sit squarely within" the Horizons region action plan, Bowen said.

The committee will hear presentations from iwi about their climate work.

Smith led off, with an illustrated talk about her Ngāti Tukorehe hapū and its work on the health of coastal waters near the Ohau River.

The work started in 1996 because kaumātua were concerned about the quality of water.

We have to acknowledge that we live on the wet west coast, Smith said.

"There have been five floods so far this year. Now it's time to act."

The hapū proposes changing some land grazed by dairy cows into wetland that will act as a buffer in sea level rise. They could also add sediment ponds that will mitigate flooding.

They want to plant harakeke (flax).

"It's an easy, cheap way of getting this moving and returning to te taiao [the natural world]," Smith said.

The vision includes papakāinga housing on the land, plentiful fishing and a flax fibre industry, with the fibre used to make fabric.

One of the outcomes of the work has been an exhibition in a dairy shed that was later moved to the Dowse Art Museum in Lower Hutt.

"It became an exhibition of hope, on how to deal with climate change," Smith said.

More iwi presentations are planned.

Stephenson said, "This is going to be a great platform for us to work together as Māori to showcase what we are doing already."

Giving his council's progress report, McDouall said one of the most amazing things about Whanganui's climate change strategy was the input from tāngata whenua - one of them being Sheehy.

One result was the addition of kerbside recycling and food waste collection, planned for 2023 and 2024 respectively.

The council had appointed a climate change and sustainability officer and was auditing its carbon emissions, with a view to reducing them. It was trialling a "rewilding" or "remeadowing" approach at appropriate green spaces - letting grass grow long or cutting it less frequently.

The green space then became a carbon sink, McDouall said, and biodiversity was encouraged.