'Community Sustainable Land Management for Waikato Lake Catchments.'
This 3 year project (2008-2011) brings together a wide range of community members, agencies and industry partners with a shared objective; to improve the health of nationally significant shallow lakes and wetlands through catchment focussed sustainable land management initiatives.
Supported by the Ministry for the Environment’s Sustainable Management Fund (Project SMF #2246), the project targets the farming community and uses “bottom up” participatory approaches to develop information sharing forums, such as workshops and resources on sustainable land management. The project is closely linked to an exciting range of community and 'agency led' initiatives which seek to assist landowners/farmers reduce their environmental footprint as well as enhance regional biodiversity.
Events such as workshops and field days form an important part of NZ Landcare Trust's work, presenting an excellent opportunity for people to get together and share information. In the first year of the Waikato Lake Catchments project, two workshops were completed, attracting more than 80 people and generating support for the work.
The first workshop was a collaborative event involving NZ Landcare Trust, Environment Waikato, Waipa and Waikato District Councils, NIWA and the University of Waikato. It focussed on the various pressures placed on these lakes and identified strategies for improving their health.
The second workshop was aimed at farmers from shallow lakes catchments in the Horsham Downs area. An informal afternoon was spent touring restored wetlands at Lake Kaituna/B. An open discussion forum allowed for a range of subjects to be covered, including stronger partnerships with government agencies and funding restoration initiatives on private land.
More recently a field day dealing with improving catchment water quality was held at Te Pahu Farm. - a full news article regarding this event is available here>
