We are all born with great power and wisdom. And yet some people struggle through life and only catch a glimpse of their inner potential. But if we move in the right direction, all the markers point to a beacon in the night. For author and well-known spiritual leader, Rangimarie Turuki Rose Pere, that light begins with Whänaungatanga.

“The sooner that humanity ‘works that one out’ and remembers that we are all whänaunga – and that we all seek sustenance in regard to the four directions, that we are indeed Ngäti Ra – the better.”

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Quotes from Rose Pere

“My ‘grandmothers’ and ‘grandfathers’ across the board were my ’speaking mountains. They taught me and my immediate family intuitive intelligence and psychic abilities through intergenerational learning and teaching.”

“It’s about ensuring that the lungs (the trees) of Papatüänuku are well taken care of. She has to heal herself, her axis is on a tilt, and we have to help her as she returns to her natural state of perfection by 2014.”

“The largest eagle in the world lived here and we need to be more like them so we can soar above everyone else and see the world from a different perspective.”

“One of the things we have to do is to enable people to stand in their own power so they can do what they need to do to progress forwards. We have to link into the mother energy, which is all about families.”

“We could embrace people in a very simple way – through whanaungatanga and teaching others how to give the breath of life back into Papatüänuku.”

“There’s a whole lot of things we could do for ourselves as well as the world community and Papatüänuku herself. As far as I’m concerned we cover the Achilles heel of humanity.”

Some of the most profound challenges of modern times are also challenges for Mäori. In this article, Linda Te Aho explores how we can maximise our development opportunities whilst protecting valuable resources that we seem to take for granted, such as our fresh water?

The incoming government has undertaken review upon review in relation to the resource management framework; the climate change programme (including the emissions trading scheme); and freshwater management. In this climate of change, it is critical that Mäori continue to fight for the right to be meaningfully involved at all levels of decision-making, at all times, over resources that are not only strategically important, but that are viewed within a framework based on a spiritual connection to this earth. We must work together. There is strength in unity.

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Key quotes from this article:

“The growing problems of declining water quality and over-abstraction make clear that the Crown has failed to actively protect this taonga from the consequences of the settlement and development of the land.”

“Control of the water resource is vital if international experience is anything to go by. The world is running out of clean fresh water. Where demand exceeds supply, water is bought, sometimes from poor countries forced to privatise their water systems.”

“Despite New Zealand’s water rich, ‘100% Pure’ image, we cannot be complacent. Think back to the anxiety during the 2008 droughts. Think too of the degradation that has occurred over many decades as mining, farming, sewage disposal, and hydro-electricity have taken their toll on the health and wellbeing of our waterways.”

“Water is a taonga. Accessing clean fresh water is an issue of survival. Some consider it to be a human right. Controlling the water resource is fundamental to ensuring protection and access, and will certainly be one of the most critical battles that Mäori will face in the near future.”

“The National Government’s rhetoric illustrates that if Mäori assert a strong and unified voice, such as occurred in 2005, they can transform policy. There is an immediate window of opportunity for Mäori to influence the government’s preferred package of water reforms before the package is taken out for consultation in late 2010.”

“Mäori must work together if we are to make the most of this opportunity.”

The terms ‘climate change’, ‘emissions trading scheme’, ‘greenhouse gases (GHG)’, ‘pre-1990 forests’, ‘global warming potential (GWP)’, make most people’s eyes glaze over. I understand why. They are the jargon for what is probably the most complex subject ever considered for consensus by the world’s governments.

The subject is so complex that it is impossible for any one person to fully understand. Those of us involved ask ourselves on a daily basis: “How the hell did we ever get caught up in this?” Having an understanding of the basics makes it no easier trying to explain it. However I will try to provide an overview and put it in context.

The genesis of the issue is predicated on the theory that a number of gases emitted from human activity [carbon dioxide (CO2) is a major contributor] are adding to a build-up in the atmosphere, contributing to global warming. This is reckoned to be potentially catastrophic for the planet. “Politically proven science” was how I heard it described recently.

There are a number of players involved in the mix. There are the scientists who have brought the issue to our attention. There are then the technocrats, bureaucrats and politicians who under the auspices of the United Nations have devised a response framework to the now orthodox science aimed at dealing with the problem. The rulebook, by which we are currently governed, from 2008 to 2012, is referred to as the Kyoto Protocol (because it was agreed to in Kyoto, Japan). The next generation of rules were to have been agreed in Copenhagen this December but it is now accepted that the best that will be agreed is to have another meeting or series of meetings. There are to be 20,000 attendees in the Danish capital.

And finally we have the bankers and financial gurus, fresh from presiding over the global financial meltdown, busy working out how to establish a market for tradable emissions rights (remember securitised sub-prime mortgages?) and getting a clip of the ticket every time someone passes ‘Go’. ‘The market’ includes price setting and trading mechanisms but has no real focus on minimising GHG emissions.

The fact that the global economy has factored in oil prices going from $US16 per barrel in the 1970s to a recent high point of $US160 does not bode well for emissions trading schemes (no two countries have the same rules!) making much difference to emissions behaviour. In the end consumers pay, no matter what the idealists or the politicians might try to get you to believe for their own reasons.

CO2 emissions from living plants occur by virtue of the photosynthesis process (absorbing CO2 during the day, releasing oxygen and the opposite in the dark). Besides the emissions from industrial processes, the decomposition of organic matter and the burning of fossil fuels (mainly oil, petrol, diesel, LPG, coal) are both major sources of CO2 into the atmosphere. There are also other gases whose GWP is equivalent to many times (23 to 23,000) that of CO2. The most significant for NZ is the methane emissions from the digestive systems (via burping) of farmed animals. This is currently put at 23 times the GWP of CO2, meaning one kg of methane of the equivalent of 23 kgs of CO2.

On the other side of the equation is the sequestration of carbon in plants, particularly trees. Around 25% of a tree is organic carbon with one kilogram of carbon requiring the absorption of 3.67kg of CO2. Growing trees is therefore a way of mitigating GHG emissions.

New forest plantations are being touted as a major business opportunity for NZ, particularly for Mäori land, much of which is not suitable for pastoral farming. The seductive factor is that a new Pinus Radiata forest, for example, will add an average of ten tonnes of carbon per hectare per year (that is 36.7 tonnes of CO2) over a rotation (30 years). At the current international price of around $28 per tonne, this is nearly $1030 per hectare annually. The sting in the tail of this ‘opportunity’ is that under the current rules, all the sequestered carbon you sell has to be re-purchased to cover the deemed emissions from harvesting the trees.

If all this sounds highly complicated and you think incapable of delivering on its stated objective of curtailing the emission of GHG’s, congratulations, you are starting to understand the subject.

Helen Clark’s government introduced the first Bill to set up an emissions trading scheme last year that was eventually enacted in September. That legislation effectively nationalised all the carbon sequestered in exotic trees planted before 1 January 2008. In the case of land forested prior to 1 January 1990, all its future sequestered carbon was also ‘nationalised’. There is no formal recognition of sequestered carbon in native trees.

FoMA has been advocating on behalf of its members since the legislative responses to climate change issues first started. It has always been acknowledged that in the interests of future generations that we as Mäori must play our proportionate part in the response to global warming. As things stand at this time we are being asked to contribute four times what everyone else is in relation to the nationalised carbon. That is destined to have huge impact on the future of the Mäori land-based economy.

Having said this, FoMA is still trying to get its view listened to by the government to ensure that the framework of the emissions trading scheme is equitable to both Mäori in general and individual land owning Mäori in particular. It has been the only voice consistently advocating a pan-Mäori view.

There would seem to be no right answers in responding to the issue of global warming but the extreme suggestions have the ability to impact very seriously on us in NZ. One climate change expert recently said that the production of meat was unsustainable because of its GHG emissions. Biofuels have been encouraged by tax incentives in the United States but this has sent the price of grains sky high. In many cases, the GHG emissions from growing and processing biofuels are greater than the reduced emissions from the using such fuels.

My overall message to conclude is not to invest in any climate change related scheme until you have done an extensive amount of research and taken expert advice. Like any new opportunity, there are plenty of people peddling extremely dubious propositions that will end in tears.
Don’t let them be yours!

As a long time spokesperson for the Te Arawa branch of the Federation of Mäori Authorities (FoMA), Pihopa has raised a number of concerns about the way local authorities have historically managed Lake Rotorua and other water bodies in the district. While millions of dollars have been allocated to the local authorities to clean up the Lakes, Te Arawa FoMA kaumatua, Pihopa Kingi, says the money has been lost.

Over the past decade, an overload of chemical nutrients being pumped into local waters from sewerage, agricultural and forestry sites have continued to cause Lake Rotorua to reach dangerous levels of eutrophication. Current research estimates that 70% of nitrogen and 40% of current phosphate loading is of farm origin.

To read this article click here.

Key quotes from this article:

“While the algae bloom as been controlled to some degree, it has not been eliminated. I have always been very disappointed in the way that the establishment has failed in the task of keeping all the lakes, rivers and streams in a reasonable state.”

“There is a level of runoff, and our local Mäori authorities are working hard to reduce the runoff from the farms, but it is unfair because most of the historic pollution that has made the lake vulnerable has not come from Mäori.”

“Te Arawa FoMA members are currently working towards a win-win solution with Environment Bay of Plenty and have developed a number of innovative approaches for cutting down nutrient loads from farms.”

Earlier this month over 120 delegates from Pacific islands as far away as Papua New Guinea and Rapanui, travelled to Maupiti for a UNESCO sponsored World Heritage Workshop to safeguard knowledge, spirituality and traditional practices. The local community of Puatiriouraivaiahu-Raipuaea have prepared for months to host these experts of Pacific culture and history.

To read this article click here.

Key quotes from this article:

“It’s only through collective cooperation that the Pacific is able to move forward in many ways both in terms of heritage but also in terms of the social and cultural needs,” says the former Chair of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee.
“The reality is that we live in an environment where we have to take cognisance of what’s needed from a global perspective because climate change is not confined to the Pacific. Climate change is something the whole of the world is having to understand,” says Te Ariki.

“One of the drivers for UNESCO sponsoring the workshop was to develop a regional action plan to get as many sites as possible on the World Heritage list. Currently only four countries are recognised as having sites of cultural and historical importance: Solomon Islands, Rapanui, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea.”

“What we can do as indigenous peoples is to offer our traditional knowledge of the oceans and the land that is not really applied today. We need to increase and build our capacities on a local level while keeping our indigeneity alive and consistent.”

“We are people of the ocean. We learn how to move on the ocean. We learn to face the ocean and be unique with the ocean and nature. We have a spiritual connection with the land and all landscapes. This is something that the Pacific can help the rest of the world to understand and remember.”

Watson & Son is a company specialising in the production of premium mänuka honey. With it’s head office based in the Wairarapa and sub-branches in Muriwhenua and Southland, the company has over fourteen thousand beehives situated in some of the most remote mono-floral mänuka areas of Aotearoa.

To read this article click here.

Key quote from this article:

“The company has also developed skincare concepts for major cosmetic and nutraceutical applications that have attracted the interest of French-based beauty leader L’Oréal. L’Oréal markets over 23 global brands in more than 130 countries and had a sales turnover in 2008 of EUR17.5 billion. Watson says this could potentially present an excellent opportunity for Mäori mänuka honey beekeepers.”

“The kaupapa of transforming the economics of Mäori land, creating employment and researching the medicinal properties of mänuka rongoä lies at the heart of the company’s activities. Another important kaupapa Watson says drives the company is the Wai 262 claim in respect of mätauranga Mäori.”

“The bottom line for me is that Mäori own most of the resource even if it’s under Crown Guardianship. The resource is still owned by Mäori and people who tie back to those areas should have first access to them like kaimoana. Mäori should be able to exercise sovereignty over their whenua and rongoä.”

In the Pacific, aid is supposed to enhance the islands’ economic and social prospects. That task is especially urgent now, as the recession battered islands’ assets recover from the last 18 months. The region’s commodity exports dropped in value, while remittances and equities also declined.

To read this article click here.

Key quotes from this article:

“New Zealand’s overseas development arm, NZ Aid, wants Mäori enterprises to become involved. NZ Aid wants Mäori in the agency’s approved contractor scheme, which matches endorsed businesses with development opportunities in the Pacific. The agency looks for expertise in industries such as agriculture, forestry and fisheries, and as well as other areas such education, health and public sector advice.”

Mäori business synergies in the Pacific

“Several aid and investment groups in the Pacific that now claim to promote more equitable partnerships with the Pacific also say they’d welcome Mäori partnerships. The European Union’s investment bank is one example. The company recently loaned $9m to Vanuatu to support construction of the country’s first wind farm. It is one of the company’s five renewable energy projects on Vanuatu, and fulfils Pacific Island and European Union objectives to encourage renewable energy and address the impacts of climate change.”

“Aldo Dell’Ariccia, European Commission ambassador and head of delegation to Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, says the project is representative of the European Union’s attempts to promote “sustainable economic development that respects peoples’ cultural and economic rights and helps develop economies.”

To read this article click here

Key quotes from this article:
“Internationally, people like the fact that we are holistic in our thinking approach to the business, the fact that we value our responsibility to the environment and our communities,” says Miriana.

“Aotahi has released a series of books to support small business and Indigenous business development. Part of the series focuses on covering the essentials of small business start up. Aotahi has also produced a unique business dictionary that is Aotearoa based and bi-lingual, to encourage the use of Te Reo Mäori in everyday business.”

Their latest book, Taking Care of Business: Indigenous Business Case Studies, looks at 13 indepth case studies of indigenous business from New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the USA.”

So what is innovation? It involves concepts such as advancement, modernism, novelty and originality. It involves experimentation and the application of research, science and technology. Its benefits are the adoption of new technologies to advance productivity and the attraction of well-connected businesses for market commercialisation. It is central to economic advancement and study after study returns the same result: innovative and advanced economies tend to produce higher levels of income and thus re-invest in innovation.

To read this article click here.

“The government has recently set up a task force to devise ways to assist New Zealand to get on an equal standing with Australia in terms of income. Admirable – but task forces come and go.”

What actions can Mäori take to aggressively drive innovation?
A few things are outlined to assist in the debate:
1. Mäori need to take an aggressive stance to taking control of policy in terms of their own primary sector assets;

2. Mäori need to re-negotiate how research, science and technology can be applied to their primary sector assets and get the right to new and not so new intellectual property and patents;

3. Mäori need to build a marketing approach and get ‘ears in the market’ so that the voice of consumers is heard, known;

4. Mäori need to change their business models to meet consumer requirements;

5. Mäori need to partner with foreign investment partners who can assist in realising the above points and give new injection of commercial lifeblood.