Accounting for diverse cultural values in freshwater management plans by using a transparent and collaborative decision support system based on multi-criteria decision analysis

Abstract

ABSTRACT The inadequate success of decades-long attempts to restore aquatic biodiversity casts doubt on the effectiveness of common top-down driven approaches that focus on ecological and socio-economic objectives alone. A way forward is engaging with the public with the aim of accounting for cultural values and local knowledge and building community buy-in to restoration and management plans. We demonstrate a values-based framework based on Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) to develop a management plan for the Lake Wānaka catchment, making use of the fact that Aotearoa/New Zealand mandates action plans to consider community values. The MCDA-framework successfully wove together cultural, ecological, and socio-economic values. Clearly translating values into objectives and structuring them hierarchically allowed the identification of current system deficits and management scenarios to address them. Combining the estimated effects of potential actions with the process participants’ subjective preferences for high-level objectives led to a clear prioritisation of management scenarios. The elicited preferences highlighted the community’s collective perspective on the relative importance of local objectives, which is an optimal basis upon which to agree on a management plan. We recommend values-based approaches such as MCDA as a way forward for inclusive freshwater co-management not only in Aotearoa/New Zealand, but elsewhere as well. Glossary of Māori Terms: Aotearoa: the Māori name for New Zealand; Hui: a meeting; Iwi: the largest tribal unit in Māoridom; Kaitiakitanga: guardianship over the sky, sea, and land; Kākahi: large freshwater mussel species including Echyridella menziezii; Kōaro: an endemic New Zealand fish species (Galaxias brevipinnis); kokopu: a group of endemic New Zealand fish species in the family Galaxiidae; mahinga kai: resources that are customarily used/harvested; mātauranga Māori: Māori knowledge; Mauri: life force or vital essence inherent in all living things; Nohoaka: seasonal occupation site; Pā: a settlement/village; Pākehā: a non-Māori New Zealander; Raupō: wetland plant (bullrush; Typha orientalis); Rūnaka: small or local tribal unit; te ao Māori: the Māori world view acknowledging the interconnectedness and interrelationship of all living and non-living things; te mana o te wai: a Māori concept that refers to the fundamental importance of water and recognises that protecting the health of freshwater protects the health and well-being of the wider environment, including people; tuna: freshwater eels indigenous to New Zealand (Anguilla dieffenbachii and Anguilla australis); important mahinga kai species; waka: canoe