A2E: ACCESS TO FRESHWATER EXPERTS

About the service

NZ Landcare Trust and Beca have been commissioned by the Ministry for the Environment to create a free service, designed to enable councils, iwi, and community groups involved with freshwater management to access expert knowledge and support and implement the Essential Freshwater reform programme.

Support could include technical, policy, or more general expertise, as required by target groups. Note the service is focused on building capability, not capacity – experts are intended to provide advice but not implement actions themselves.

Initial Pilot Areas

The service is looking initially at the following areas of the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management (but will expand further as the service launches later this year):

  1. Nutrient limit setting
  2. Sediment reduction
  3. Mahinga kai
  4. Wetland management
  5. Te Mana o te Wai.

How will the service work?

Users can request support from the Beca brokerage team, providing an outline of type of support they are looking for. The brokerage team will then match them to relevant experts and pay the experts for their time via the service.

Register your interest now

We are in the initial stages of the piloting the service and we will need to understand how the advice you need and the expert we could provide is fit for purpose. The following information will help us identify how the service may best support your group:

  • In a sentence or two, tell us what kind of advice (and possible expert, if known) you need
  • Briefly, describe how you think the advice would align with the initial pilot areas / Essential Freshwater reform programme?
  • Does the support needed relate to a specific area? (e.g. a river, a district, a catchment)
  • Your contact details so we can have a conversation with you (if needed) on how we can best align the service with your needs.

Please submit any expressions of interest to FreshWaterExperts@beca.com; or have an initial conversation with our key contacts if you have an idea for piloting.

Read the backgrounder