100 projects
Trying things out, costing them, and planning how to take them to scale
Living Water: Dairy and freshwater thriving together
Living Water is a partnership between the Department of Conservation and Fonterra. Our focus is finding game-changing and scalable solutions that will enable farming, freshwater and healthy ecosystems to thrive side-by-side.
We are working with farmers, scientists, councils, mana whenua and communities to design and test solutions, and then develop a plan to implement regionally and nationally.
Our mission
5 regions
Demonstrating dairying and freshwater ecosystems thriving together
1 mission
To build connections which can drive better outcomes for the environment, the economy and New Zealanders
Who are we
With nearly 40% of New Zealand’s land under their care, Fonterra and the Department of Conservation have joined forces to work on the farming and freshwater challenge.
We work on the ground, side by side. We share our expertise and use our collective strengths.
Where we’re working
How we’re working
1
Working towards a common vision of dairy and freshwater thriving together
2
Designing and trialling solutions in five catchments
3
Measuring the impact across 10 years
4
Scaling implementation — the process and cost per farm, per region and for New Zealand
5
Championing change — to mindsets, approaches, systems and aspirations
What we’re up to
We are doers, with the big picture in mind. Check out what we have been up to around New Zealand.
Get up, get out and do something
Today marks the beginning of volunteer week. Living Water is thankful to all the community members that volunteer their time to help us, from things like pest trapping, planting, monitoring endangered species and weed control. All done in the volunteer's own time and sometimes in not the nicest of weather conditions. If you're interested in volunteering, check out Department of Conservation's page for opportunities in your area 👇 https://www.doc.govt.nz/get-involved/volunteer/in-your-region/
No waterway is too small
Department of Conservation and Fonterra have agreed on a vision – a sustainable dairy industry is part of healthy functioning ecosystems that together enrich the lives of all New Zealanders – this includes even the smaller waterways and drains on farm that flow into larger water bodies. You can read about one of our Ararira-LII transformation projects here 👇 http://bit.ly/powellsroad
Are you heading to Fieldays this year?
If you do, make sure you say hi to 2 of the Living Water team members, Dion Patterson - Site Lead for Pūkorokoro-Miranda and Waikato Peat Lakes and Dr Katie Collins - Science Lead Freshwater Technical Advisor. They have first hand experience working with Fonterra in our 5 catchments, finding ways for freshwater and dairying to thrive together. Come down and have a chat with them and the Department of Conservation team.
Annual Team Hui 2019
At our annual hui, our wider team had some in-depth discussions about where the partnership is headed in the next few years and celebrated how far we have come. The partnership is poised to do some really great work for New Zealand and we are excited to be sharing that with others as we move into the next phase of the partnership.
Our progress
Our plans, projects, case studies, and reports.
