Ki Uta ki Tai
Ki Uta Ki Tai is a term that has become synonymous with the way Ngāi Tahu think about natural resource management. Ki Uta Ki Tai is the concept used to describe the overall approach to natural resource management by Ngāi Tahu - from the mountains to the sea.
Ki Uta Ki Tai is a Ngāi Tahu paradigm and ethic - it is our way of understanding the natural environment, including how it functions, how people relate to it and how it can be looked after appropriately. It involves not only a planning and policy framework, but the development of monitoring, reporting, geographical information system analysis, information databases, area management and succession tools for natural resource management.
Ki Uta Ki Tai Planning is one of the key Ngāi Tahu 2025 objectives for Te Ao Tūroa. This is to occur at both Te Rūnanga (Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu) and ngā rūnanga (Papatipu Rūnanga) levels.
Tribal Policy
In 2002/2003 Kaupapa Taiao developed a draft scoping document that described what the Ki Uta Ki Tai concept is, where it comes from, why it is needed, how it can help, what it involves in terms of the development of natural resource management tools, and the ways in which these tools can be implemented to achieve the aspirations for our natural environment as outlined in Ngāi Tahu 2025 - (this is a large document and may take a few minutes to download). From the work to date, the top twelve natural resource management issues for Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu (in no particular order) are:
- Subdivision and associated building and earthworks
- Water abstraction, irrigation, damming and associated water quantity management practices
- Discharge of sewage and effluent and the contamination of waterways and land
- Gravel extraction, dredging, mining, quarries and their impacts on Ngāi Tahu cultural values
- Air discharges, the Kyoto Protocol and Climate Change
- Over fishing and the implementation of the Ministry of Fisheries - Sustainability Measures
- Solid waste disposal (land fills) and the impacts on Ngāi Tahu cultural values
- Aquaculture
- Genetically Modified Organisms policy and the introductions of Hazardous Substances and New Organisms
- Appropriate management and protection of wāhi tapu and other sites of significance
- Land tenure and the impacts on customary use and access
- DoC Concessions, Policy and Planning and the extent to which they give effect to the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi.
Local Plans
Kaupapa Taiao assists and supports Papatipu Rūnanga aspirations for policy and plan development at a local Rūnanga level.
Local Papatipu Rūnanga Ki Uta Ki Tai Plans Include:
- Te Taumutu Rūnanga Natural Resource Management Plan.
Completed 2003 - Kāi Tahu Ki Otago Natural Resource Plan 2004.
Currently in development - Kaikōura Rūnanga Natural Resource Management Plan.
Currently in development - Te Whakatau Kaupapa ki Murihiku
Completed - Makaawhio Natural Resource Management Plan
Currently in development
Te Whakatau Kaupapa - Canterbury
Completed 1990
Comments/feedback
For further information on any Ki Uta ki Tai, please contact
David O'Connell
Ph - 03 371 2692
Email - david.oconnell@ngaitahu.iwi.nz