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Author Archives: cjkperley
Thinking about Tree Crops – where to from here?
Akaroa by Maureen McCann When looking to the future, the poorest point of reference is often the present. We may not know where we will end up, but one thing is almost certain – it will be different than today. … Continue reading
Posted in Land Use, Thought Pieces
2 Comments
Does Farming need to Compromise the Environment? Compromise? Hell!
My apologies to Jane Austen, but some have been claiming recently that it is a truth universally acknowledged that a man in possession of a farm must compromise the environment. One newspaper commentator stated it thus: “..where our (New Zealand) reputation … Continue reading
Posted in Land Use, Resilience Thinking, Thought Pieces
9 Comments
NZ Primary Sector Strategy: an Alternative to the Race to the Bottom
Irrigation NZ CEO Andrew Curtis (NZ Farmer’s Weekly 25th Nov p 3) highlights one of the big problems with the New Zealand primary sector; our continued focus on producing large volumes of cheap commodities for international markets. We’re not to … Continue reading
The Loss of the Napier-Gisborne Rail Link: Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold
This article criticising the current government’s decision to close the Napier-Gisborne rail line was published in the NZ J Forestry in December 2012. ================================================================ Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart, … Continue reading
Instead of Dam Thinking from the 50s, Look to the Landscape
In the lowlands of the Otago Peninsula, within the hill streams that flow into the harbour, there are water wheels. They stand as monuments to what once was, to what ‘functions’ there once were within our society, and – vitally … Continue reading
Posted in Land Use, Thought Pieces, Water retention
Tagged irrigation, land use history, landscape water, water management, water pattern
7 Comments
There are Alternatives to the Ruataniwha Dam
There are Alternatives to the Ruataniwha Dam. via There are Alternatives to the Ruataniwha Dam.
Land & Water Concerns of Federated Farmers & Irrigation NZ
Land & Water Concerns of Federated Farmers & Irrigation NZ.
Posted in Resilience Thinking, Thought Pieces
4 Comments
Land and Water Concerns of Federated Farmers and Irrigation NZ
Federated Farmers and Irrigation New Zealand Questions Chris Perley Ngaruroro Ward, Hawke’s Bay Regional Council Federated Farmers and Irrigation NZ provided the following questions (italicised within text). Here is my response. Introduction I am passionate about the potential of our … Continue reading
Realising the Potential of Hawke’s Bay (and NZ Primary Sector)
Realising the Potential of Hawke's Bay (and NZ Primary Sector).
Does Ozymandias Live in the Bay?
Does Ozymandias Live in the Bay?.
Does Ozymandias Live in the Bay?
A democratic society is based on the values of an open society, those nebulous things that don’t fit into a financier’s or an economist’s spreadsheet. These values provide for the trust, participation, creativity, freedom and imagination that makes the good … Continue reading
Posted in Alternative Vision, Community resilience, Democracy, Knowledge Systems, Local governance, Management Style, Social Capital, Virtues
Tagged Aldous Huxley, Arrogance, Command & control, Democracy, George Orwell, Governance, Hubris, Lessons of history, Phronesis, Power, Practical Wisdom, Privacy, Propaganda, Resilience theory, Robert Putnam, Social Capital, Social institutions, Social Resilience, Social values, Surveillance society, Transactional vs. Transformational management
3 Comments
Realising the Potential of Hawke’s Bay (and NZ Primary Sector)
Posted in agricultural strategy, Alternative Vision, Commodity trap, Community resilience, Environmental value, False clichés, Fruitbowl or Dustbowl, High value, Industrial Mindset, Land Use, Land use strategy, Landscape function, Local governance, Market position, Mordor vs the Shire, Primary Sector Strategy, Quality vs Commodity, Transfer, Water retention
4 Comments
A Forest Flows
I am a forester; in the old sense of the word. I want to reclaim the name, to give it again the sense of guardianship of a people and a place which is spatial, structural, dynamic, and timeless; a guardianship … Continue reading
Posted in Land Use, Linkages, Thought Pieces
24 Comments
The Perennial Values of Civilisation
At a time when we are governed by opportunists, expedience, selfishness and the narrowness and short-term perspectives of money, we do need a re-examination of what it is to be ‘civilised’. I do not think we can hope to … Continue reading
Adapting to Climate Change – What Change? What Levels of Response?
Initial notes as the basis for a presentation to the Hawke’s Bay Royal Forest & Bird Society, February 2013 What adaptations do we make for climate change? The question of adapting to a future that is inherently uncertain – as … Continue reading
A ‘Sense of Place’ is not a Utility: Moving beyond Utilitarian Ethics in Natural Systems
There were two moments in the past when I realised that some people saw the world through distorted lens. The first was at a conference where a money man discussed forestry finance with me. He thought all rational decisions relating … Continue reading
Posted in Land Use, Thought Pieces
2 Comments
Reflections on Wisdom, and the Log from the Sea of Cortez
Wisdom comes from connecting. In order to connect, we first have to see what there is around us, what past lessons apply, and to know what matters, in this place, at this time. John Steinbeck’s Log from the Sea of … Continue reading
Posted in Thought Pieces
Tagged Books, Culture, Humanities, Ideas, Land use philosophy, Nature, Philosophy of Science, Science
5 Comments
Discovering Great Land Minds
My first blog post! All happened serendipitously. You start with this nagging thought that goes on for months and months. You love writing but love procrastination more. People prod you to produce prose. You are a mild technophobe, wonder about … Continue reading
