Making it easier to protect and enhance on-farm biodiversity 

A multi-phase restoration, wetland reconnection and water management project

Trialling ways to improve the habitat of a roadside drain

Helping landowners to put the right tree in the right place

Sediment traps are simple, low-cost excavations in a watercourse or near a waterbody that capture and reduce the downstream movement of gravel, sand, and silt. 

Are nutrient filters a practical solution for farmers to reduce their impact on water quality?

Reducing contaminants and improving wetland habitat

Creating wetlands in wet areas on-farm can provide biodiversity benefits while also reducing flooding, erosion, and improving water quality.

Spraying a mixture of water, seed, mulch and sometimes fertilisers onto the ground in difficult to reach places

Can nitrogen fertiliser use be reduced without compromising pasture growth?

Engaging farmers with biodiversity on their farms

Digitised up-to-date environmental action plans for farmers

Reducing the biomass of invasive macrophyte Ludwigia by aerial spraying with drones, rather than hand weeding or excavation

Can we control an invasive weed with Brazilian beetles?

Assessing the costs and benefits of restoring Aotearoa New Zealand’s lowland drainage network at a national scale.

Breaking down barriers for our native freshwater fish

Reducing contaminants reaching Waituna Lagoon

Integrating landscape properties and cutting-edge science to explain why water quality varies

Using simple structures to manage peak flows

Reduce the rate of sediment and nutrients originating from on-farm and off-farm activities

Can continuous, accurate data that’s accessible to all parties involved in catchment management empower and inspire change?

Trialling a catchment wide approach to managing drains and waterways

What can economic cost benefit analysis tell us about the value of environment improvement activities?

Testing the usefulness of taking an ecosystems services approach for project planning

Determining whether detention bunds can effectively manage peak run off and reduce sediment in Northland

Helping landowners to better understand where to put contaminant management interventions to improve water quality leaving farms

An inexpensive way to gather baseline information, identify key ecological issues and prioritise areas and activities for effective catchment management

A GIS-based tool to help community groups and landowers in smaller catchments to prioritise actions for freshwater improvement

Using a sample of water, soil or sediment can detect species much more easily than electrofishing or intensive trapping

Preventing the spread of invasive pest fish

Our approach to working with mana whenua

A framework to guide the planning, monitoring and evaluation approach for Living Water

Collaborative project incorporating sustainable land management practices and the principles of mātauranga Māori to reduce sediment into the Wairoa River

Why was Living Water established? What were the challenges of establishing a partnership and what has been learned

Working with landowners to acquire land for environmental outcomes 

How to work together with differing views, backgrounds and goals for ecological restoration

Engaging the whole community to achieve outcomes for the environment

Taking a new approach to strategic planning

We're trialling physical tools, as well as approaches, processes, ways of working or system changes.

Assessing the costs and benefits of restoring Aotearoa New Zealand’s lowland drainage network at a national scale.

Breaking down barriers for our native freshwater fish

Integrating landscape properties and cutting-edge science to explain why water quality varies

Making it easier to protect and enhance on-farm biodiversity 

This work is more than just communications and marketing, it is about engaging people and organisations on a change journey.

A framework to guide the planning, monitoring and evaluation approach for Living Water

Our approach to working with mana whenua

Digitised up-to-date environmental action plans for farmers

Engaging farmers with biodiversity on their farms

Partnering with the University of Canterbury on transforming agricultural drains into healthy waterways.

Partnering with QEII National Trust to accelerate the protection of significant habitat on farms.

How the Living Water partnership and programme is organised to deliver the mahi

How Living Water made choices about where to work

How we collected information to inform decisions on what work to do

Taking a new approach to strategic planning