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Category Archives: Resilience Thinking
New Zealand Forestry: Getting off the Love affair with Simple
The British Columbian forestry sector imploded through 2018-2020. There are lessons here for New Zealand and elsewhere. Continue reading
Reimagining landscapes as socio- and agro-ecosystems [1]
Preamble: Dr Mike Joy brought a team of people together to consider the question of how we can help solve New Zealand’s freshwater crisis. The contributions were published by Bridget Williams Books as Mike Joy (Ed) 2018 Mountain to Sea: Solving … Continue reading
The Fragility of Authoritarianism
I am fascinated by our propensity to tilt toward authoritarianism in certain times. They provide a delusion of hope. Someone promises to make it all better, and something in us is attracted to the personality cult of bullies and what … Continue reading
Posted in Resilience Thinking, Thought Pieces
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Trust … in our Economy
They don’t think of ‘trust’ much when they talk about the economy. They split it up. They, the technocrats. They put such things as ‘trust’, ‘integrity’, ‘truth’ and ‘justice’ in the box marked ‘social’; something to deal with “after we … Continue reading
Nature and Corporate Neoliberal Economics in Conflict
The laws of nature and the laws of corporate-based neoliberal economics are in conflict. Continue reading
Choice: A Bigger Machine, or Democracy & Culture
What are the critical factors determining good local governance? The recent amalgamation debate in Hawke’s Bay was certainly raised some issues, but the debate was narrow – focusing on the idea that bigger is better. The logic of the Local Government Commission, … Continue reading
Morality & Strategy Trumped by Financial Expedience
After reading the enthusiastic trumpeting of the sale of our water overseas in Saturday’s paper (17th Oct) I wondered when what is morally right got trumped by what is expedient to the financial minds. Certainly it took a major turn … Continue reading
Ways of Seeing I: Paradigms of Progress – the Rise of the Machine
Preamble. This is the beginning of a series. I wanted to write about where we have come from in land use and conservation, what we are doing, and where we could be going: from Pre-modern (Pre-Industrial), To Modern (Industrial, or … Continue reading
Regional Development – Thinking Short & Narrow or Long and Broad
Wairarapa MP Alistair Scott’s opinion piece regarding the environmental record of New Zealand’s National led government (Hawke’s Bay Today 26th July 2015) is so full of errors, misrepresentations and clichés that it is difficult to know where to start. At its … Continue reading
Seeing the World System of Weeds – Or – Do Androids dream of Intelligent Sheep? A Compleat Ramble
An anecdote about our research focus on ‘weeds’. I was a little mischievously provocative about our ‘weed’ research at Otago University. I remembered an Aldo Leopold article in one of my books of his essays (no, I can’t be bothered … Continue reading
Future Goals and Options in NZ Land Management – A Transdisciplinary View
A brief argument from some years ago to rethink land use in New Zealand “If we go through a list of some of the main problematiques that are defining the new Century, such as water, forced migrations, poverty, environmental crises, … Continue reading
A Regional Energy Strategy for Hawke’s Bay
A number of regions in New Zealand are working on developing ‘energy’ strategies. Some are more tactical than strategic with a narrow of view of what ‘energy’ encompasses and how it interrelates to other issues. The following are notes prepared prior to … Continue reading
Posted in Building Regional Economies, Resilience Thinking, Thought Pieces, Wicked Problems
Tagged Climate futures, Corporate Influence, Decentralisation, Diversity, Energy efficiency, Energy futures, Public engagement, Renewables, resilience, Scenario Analysis, Strategic thinking, Transport strategy
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Building Land Systems for Drought-Flood Resilience
A few notes from a morning rant “Although rainwater harvest has been accomplished by humans in virtually every drought prone region of the world for millennia, our society seems to have collective amnesia about the utility, efficiency, sustainability and beauty … Continue reading
Resilience Principles: Managing for an Uncertain Future
Below are three sets of principles for dealing with an uncertain world. Updated. First, there has to be recognition that the world is complex and uncertain! G D Peterson’s schema is I think best at visualising that point (see below). … Continue reading
Posted in Building Regional Economies, Resilience Thinking, Thought Pieces
Tagged Adaptability, Adaptive Capacity, Ball in a Bowl, Complex Adaptive Systems, future generations, Managing Complexity, Resilience Principles, Socio-Ecological Systems, System Shifts, Thresholds, uncertain future
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The Future of Belonging in This Place
It took 27 years for me to come home. For years I felt the lone voice screaming “Come on the Bay” amongst the red and black rugby faithful during Canterbury’s 1980s Ranfurly Shield era. In later years I facetiously referred … Continue reading
HBRC Election 2013 – Land and Water Concerns of Federated Farmers and Irrigation NZ
The following was in response to questions asked of Hawke’s Bay Regional Councillor candidates in the 2013 Local Body Elections. Federated Farmers and Irrigation New Zealand Questions Chris Perley Ngaruroro Ward, Hawke’s Bay Regional Council Federated Farmers and Irrigation NZ … Continue reading
The Loss of the Napier-Gisborne Rail Link: Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold
This article critiquing the current government’s 2012 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 … Continue reading
Posted in Resilience Thinking, Thought Pieces
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The Renaissance of an Ethos of Care
It is now more and more a forgotten fact that much of the effort by the New Zealand state in planting trees in the landscape had as its primary goal the ‘protection’ of some social and environmental value. These values … Continue reading
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
Land & Water Concerns of Federated Farmers & Irrigation NZ
Land & Water Concerns of Federated Farmers & Irrigation NZ.
Posted in Resilience Thinking, Thought Pieces
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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?.
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
