Worldwide, progress has been made toward managing productive lands more sustainably to improve freshwater health. However, a lack of national guidance for environmental reporting and recording means that it is not possible to quantify consistently which land management actions that help improve water quality have been implemented, where, when, and to what extent. This situation suggests that information on the effectiveness of these actions is missing or fragmented. Systematic recording and reporting of land management actions is an important piece of a large freshwater restoration puzzle. We investigated what motivates New Zealand land managers to record their actions and report them to their networks by conducting 23 semi-structured interviews. Between February and November 2020, we spoke with food producers, New Zealand Indigenous people of the land tāngata whenua community members, and government and industry representatives. The key themes that described motivators for these land managers to record and report land management actions were collective engagement (e.g., working with catchment care groups), identity and social norms (e.g., being a "socially approved" farmer), and efficient farm management (e.g., using one simple recording tool for multiple purposes to save time). While these findings will be broadly germane to international contexts, they are being used specifically to inform the development of a proposed National Register of Land Management Actions in Aotearoa New Zealand.
In Aotearoa New Zealand, catchment communities have been actively working to restore the health of their rivers, in some cases for many decades. Their knowledge offers a valuable resource that could motivate and empower other groups to do the same, making river restoration more effective at large scales. We spoke to five catchment groups across Aotearoa New Zealand to conceptualize and define how knowledge sharing through storytelling could be used as a tool to inspire freshwater restoration action amongst their own community and elsewhere. Each group created a “Catchment Journey,” a graphical artwork that told a story of their land and people, and their restoration activities. Whilst each of these “Journeys” was unique, the following common elements were important for knowledge sharing: (1) the role of respected storytellers (e.g., community champions) in influencing restoration in their community; (2) recognition of responsibility to act (e.g., concern for future generations, land stewardship, prosperity and community cohesion); and (3) authenticity (e.g., true and honest stories, including weaknesses, threats and hardship). Participants recommended including each of these key elements in collective catchment storytelling to encourage large scale freshwater restoration.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.