70 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 was a ten-year partnership between the Department of Conservation and Fonterra from 2013-2024. Living Water trialled tools, methods and approaches to enable farming, freshwater and healthy ecosystems to thrive side-by-side.
Living Water worked with farmers, scientists, councils, mana whenua and communities to design and test solutions to improve freshwater quality, and shared the results of 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 their care, Fonterra and the Department of Conservation joined forces to work on the farming and freshwater challenge.
We worked on the ground, side by side. We shared our expertise and used our collective strengths.
Where we worked
Ngā wāhi e mahi ana mātou
How we worked
Te āhua o tā mātou mahi
1
Worked towards a common vision of dairy and freshwater thriving together
2
Designed and trialled solutions in five unique catchments
3
Measured the impact we had across 10 years
4
Scaling implementation — worked out what works and what it will cost
5
Championed change — to mindsets, approaches, systems and aspirations
What we did
He aha tā mātou mahi
Check out what we have been up to around Aotearoa New Zealand.
CRAKE DAY
The Living Water team is doing the annual spotless crake/pūweto monitoring around the very full Waikato Peat Lakes. The amount of water has made it difficult to circumnavigate the lakes but monitoring will continue over the next few weeks. Spotless crake/pūweto numbers indicate how well wetland restoration is going because populations can bounce back in just a few years with the right restoration conditions. Read more 👇 http://bit.ly/3YiY73l
It's World Wetland Day!
🌎 Wetland restoration is a great nature-based solution for climate, water, biodiversity, ecological health and resilience ⬇️ Read what enduring lessons Living Water has learnt from wetland protection and restoration and how we could reimagine our waterway networks to include wetlands in productive catchments https://bit.ly/40jzmFx Department of Conservation Fonterra #WorldWetlandsDay
FREE resources for farming with Native Biodiversity
A great project we are proud to be part of! 💻 Check out the new Farming with Native Biodiversity website for ecological advice and resources. 🌱 The goal of the 20-month pilot project is to develop training and resources that will equip farm advisors and farmers with the skills and confidence needed to implement their own ecological solutions https://www.biodiversity.nz/
Find out what's living in your waterways
Are you part of a catchment group and want to get funding to know what's living in your waterways? You can apply below 👇 https://www.epa.govt.nz/community-involvement/open-waters-aotearoa/get-involved/register/ Living Water co-funded eDNA in the Wairua catchment with Ngā Kaitiaki O Ngā Wai Māori to link in with water quality monitoring. eDNA testing will enable Ngā Kaitiaki O Ngā Wai Māori to collect data to expand hapū understanding of their traditional waterways and impacts from mitigation strategies and actions – such as riparian fencing and planting, afforestation planting and water monitoring. Living Water also uses eDNA to monitor for pest fish in the Waikato Peat Lakes.
Tools and solutions
Ngā Taputapu me ngā Rongoā
Our projects, case studies, and resources
