Te Mana o te Taiao
The new strategy, Te Mana o te Taiao, has five key outcomes including that ecosystems from mountain tops to ocean depths are thriving, indigenous species and their habitats are protected, and treaty partners are exercising their full role as rangatira and kaitiaki.
New Zealand's biodiversity is in crisis with about 4000 species threatened or at risk of extinction.
Conservation Minister Eugene Sage said the last plan - launched 20 years ago - failed to have a strong Māori perspective, and things had only got worse since then.
"The 2000 strategy did not have a strong te ao Māori perspective, this one does. And the 2000 plan didn't have the detail of the actions and monitoring that was required," she said.
One of the strategy's key objectives is to see Māori leading the delivery of many biodiversity restoration projects, and partnering with the government on decisions about taonga species and the whenua, awa and moana with which they associate.
A climate spokesperson for the iwi Chairs Forum, Mike Smith, said he had heard it all before.
"Quite often the Crown's idea of engagement is like a shark engaging with a kahawai, one eats the other. Or there's such a power imbalance that Māori are not in a position to really advocate for their full interests," Smith said.
Link to article: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/423194/matauranga-maori-to-be-equal-to-western-science-in-biodiversity-plan-te-mana-o-te-taiao
