Abstract:
Little research has been undertaken into the management priorities of indigenous people who have exotic species forests planted on their ancestral land. This SAC will present the results from two case studies in the central North Island of New Zealand, where planted forest leases exist over large areas of tribal land. In both cases, M?ori families have maintained collective ownership of the land but the forest management is undertaken by a third-party entity.
The study used document analysis and in-depth interviews to identify historical and contemporary perceptions of the forests, the existence of non-negotiable cultural values for land management, and the potential for improving the forest management practices to better meet land owners? aspirations. Applying a resilience framework provided insights into the effectiveness of land owners? resistance to land loss, their adaptations to land management approaches, and their contemporary goals for forest management. While the experiences of the land owners might have been expected to result in transformation, this, in fact, has not occurred and the communities have remained resilient. The concept of ?resilience pivots? is proposed to describe the values central to cultural wellbeing which have been retained, around which other components have been adapted. The resilience pivot concept provides a novel approach for discussing resilience, adaptations and transformations of indigenous communities.
About the Speaker:
Stephanie completed her PhD at CSAFE in 2011. Her key motivation has been to contribute knowledge to the ongoing debate regarding forest resource management and its multiple values. Her research is in partnership with M?ori land-owners who have third-party entities managing their land. The aim is to describe how the land-owners perceive the planted forest and its management, with an aim to provide forest management advice. Stephanie's background is in forest resource management and she is the recipient of a Te Tipu P?taiao Fellowship from the Ministry of Science and Innovation (MSI).Stephanie's research interests include forest resource management, planted forests and resilience of forest-dependent people.
Stephanie is a member of the New Zealand Forest Owners Association Environmental Committee, the New Zealand Institute of Forestry, and the Resilience Alliance working group on Indigenous peoples and social-ecological resilience.