100 projects
Trying things out, costing them, and planning how to take them to scale
Living Water: Dairy and freshwater thriving together
About Living Water
Mō Living Water
Farming and freshwater thriving together
Te puāwai ngātahi a te mahi pāmu me te wai māori
Living Water is a partnership between the Department of Conservation and Fonterra. We’re trialling tools, methods and approaches to enable farming, freshwater and healthy ecosystems to thrive side-by-side.
We’re working with farmers, scientists, councils, mana whenua and communities to design and test solutions to improve freshwater quality, and then sharing the results of our trials and research on this website.
Our mission
Tā tātou Whāinga
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
Our People
Ō mātou tāngata
With nearly 40% of New Zealand’s land under our 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
Ngā wāhi e mahi ana mātou
How we’re working
Te āhua o tā mātou mahi
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
He aha tā mātou mahi
We are doers, with the big picture in mind. Check out what we have been up to around Aotearoa New Zealand.
Find all our reports and case studies
You now can find all of our case studies, reports and videos in one place on our website 👇 https://www.livingwater.net.nz/case-studies-and-resources/
When Fonterra and the Department of Conservation formed a partnership in 2013 it was the first national partnership of its type in New Zealand - between a government conservation agency and a primary industry cooperative - and emerged at a time of growing national concern about the impact of dairy farming on water quality. This article provides an overview of the initial experiences of forming the partnership and how it evolved to address some of the challenges the two organizations faced when working together.
Wading in to improve water quality at Pūkorokoro-Miranda
Pūkorokoro-Miranda is a complicated catchment, that flows into an internationally significant 8,500-hectare coastal wetland, home to around 40 different migratory bird species and protected under the Ramsar Convention. The total catchment area is 6,000 hectares made up of dairy farms and other land use including sheep and beef farms and lifestyle blocks. Learn how we gathered and used catchment data to start a community-led Mountains to Sea approach to reducing sediment and expanding shorebird habitat 👇 https://www.livingwater.net.nz/what-were-up-to-nga-mahi-kei-te-haere/stories-about-our-work-ta-matou-mahi/wading-in-to-improve-water-quality-at-pukorokoro/
How the landscape affects water quality
What if there was a way to reveal the characteristics of a landscape so farmers and landowners could make informed decisions about the best use of their land, to reduce negative environmental impacts? That's the goal of LandscapeDNA, a project by Land and Water Science that Living Water is supporting. https://www.livingwater.net.nz/what-were-up-to-nga-mahi-kei-te-haere/stories-about-our-work-ta-matou-mahi/revealing-the-hidden-characteristics-of-landscapes/
Tools and solutions
Ngā Taputapu me ngā Rongoā
Our projects, case studies, and resources
