Mike Cranstone. Photo / Supplied
It is heartening to see that Fish & Game NZ has had a change of culture and leadership over recent years.
Many battles have been had between Fish & Game NZ and Federated Farmers, with each struggling to appreciate the other's point of view.
Often claims were made based more on emotion and sensationalism, and this affected the level of trust.
The good working relationship on the ground, between farmers and Fish & Game regional teams, was being tarnished by the mudslinging at the national level.
Farmers who are establishing riparian plantings around streams and wetlands often involve Fish & Game regional staff.
It is encouraging to see the positive working relationship moving up to the national level. The new chief executive of Fish & Game NZ is Corina Jordon.
Corina previously worked for the farmer levy body Beef + Lamb NZ, where her roles were as environmental manager and then North Island general manager.
The membership of Fish & Game has also voted Richard McIntyre as the vice chairman of their national organisation. Richard is also on the national board of Federated Farmers.
The two organisations will still have differing opinions and positions on many environmental issues, but we should look forward to a more constructive pathway forward.
New Zealanders are renowned for their innovation, and Kiwi ingenuity has seen our nation lead the world in many sectors.
This has been evident in many facets of agriculture, adventure tourism and recently even space exploration. Whereas the focus historically has been on lifting production, energy is now focused on reducing the environmental footprint of what we do.
Farmers are taking the lead in their communities with the formation of catchment groups. The Whangaehu and Turakina rivers are sub-catchment groups of the Rangitikei Rivers Catchment Collective, with the Whanganui West group joining up with those sub-catchment groups being established in the upper Whanganui River.
The catchment groups aim to involve not only farmers but all of the community, with the key being that action is being driven by the community rather than by directives from regulators.
Lifting everybody's game in environmental stewardship relies on a mixture of empowering people with knowledge, motivating change in behaviour and finding workable solutions that minimise the disruption to people's livelihoods.
Most of all, people need to have credible options and confidence in the future survival of their jobs or businesses. The key glue for this is trust amongst participants and the appreciation that we are working towards a common goal.
The risk with many of the regulations currently coming out of Wellington is that there is a requirement for consent and audits as well as an inference of mistrust.
Nothing kills off motivation faster than a lack of acknowledgement of the current direction and good work that has already been done. Horizons Regional Council has the task of moulding the rules, set by the central government, into workable plans for the region while considering both the economic and environmental impacts.
There is a place for the regulatory stick to chase the laggards and poorest performers, but hopefully, the momentum of positive change that is being driven by communities is not smothered by the inefficient process of 'consenting for everything' approach.
The new constructive approach that we are seeing between Fish & Game NZ and farmers hopefully will extend to our regulatory organisations. The upcoming local body elections will hopefully see councillors with a conciliatory rather than a disruptive focus, prepared to bring groups together towards the common goal rather than divide.
Mike Cranstone
Whanganui Federated Farmers president
One new and three returning trustees have been elected for the Treaty settlement entity.