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SPEAKERS

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Pete Huggins

Greater Wellington Regional Council

Pete Huggins is the Catchment Manager – Ruāmahanga at Greater Wellington Regional Council. This is a new role focused on integrated work to enhance freshwater values in partnership with mana whenua and communities. Pete’s professional background includes conservation engagement, media, Treaty Settlements and environmental advocacy work.

Glistening Water, Threatened Valley
Greater Wellington’s role in the Lower Wairarapa Valley Development Scheme

Thurs 7 Nov 1030am - 12.30pm

Pete Huggins, Ruamāhanga Catchment Manager, speaks to the inherited land development infrastructure around Wairarapa Moana and how Greater Wellington is looking ahead to the next 100 years.

Greater Wellington administers the Lower Wairarapa Valley Development Scheme which includes land drainage, floodways, rivermouth management and flood barrage gates centred on Wairarapa Moana. 30,000 hectares are impacted by the scheme which diverts water from the Ruamāhanga river, controls lake levels, and protects land from flood flows. It’s been extremely effective at what it was designed to do - land drainage and flood mitigation – while contributing to the decline in native ecosystems, degradation of freshwater quality in lake Wairarapa and destruction of mahinga kai.

The Wairarapa Moana Statutory Board was recently established, born from Te Rohe o Rongokako Joint Redress Act, to administer Wairarapa Moana and influence the regional plan provisions for the catchment that feeds it. This new co-governance arrangement is the vehicle for Greater Wellington to explore it’s role in the future of Wairarapa Moana. Part of Treaty Settlements for Kahungunu ki Wairarapa and Rangitāne o Wairarapa, the statutory board is made up of mana whenua, representatives of the Minister of Conservation, Greater Wellington Regional Council and South Wairarapa District Councils.

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