The third phase of a multi-stakeholder, integrated catchment management project at the Whatawhata Research Centre is described. Land use and management changes were implemented to improve economic and environmental performance of the Mangaotama case study catchment farm. The major changes included: afforestation of 160 of the 296 ha catchment farm with pine and native trees, riparian management of the entire 20 km of stream network via fencing and/or forestry, restoration of 5 ha of existing native forest, and intensification of the remaining pastoral component to a high fecundity ewe flock and bull beef finishing. Marked improvements were observed in the key environmental and economic performance indicators. In particular, declines in sediment (76%) and phosphorus (62%) loads and faecal coliform (43%) levels were observed, native forest fragments showed early signs of recovery in terms of sapling numbers and vegetative cover, and the pastoral enterprise recorded increased per hectare production of lamb (87%) and beef (170%). There were implementation challenges with the better matching of land use to land capability, but this study demonstrated that significant progress can be made in the short-term.

A study was undertaken to identify the relationships between farmers' values and their farming goals. Fifty goals were first identified from interviews with 20 farmers in the Waikite Valley. In a further survey of 1100 farmers in Hawke's Bay, King Country and Taranaki, respondents were asked to score the importance of each of the goals. The survey had 680 responses. Cluster analyses of the scores from the survey were used as the basis for developing 10 goal categories. The most important category of goals for 43% of the farmers was that related to maximising farm production and profitability. These goals could be associated with people who put a priority upon values which emphasised individual success. The environmental goal category was prioritised by 7% of farmers, with values emphasising the welfare of others and the management of natural resources. The implications of this study for consultancy strategies are that although most farmers ranked their production goals very highly, they also wanted to realise a whole range of other goals (often including the environment), all of which needed to be addressed. Policy agencies associated with environmental management to implement the Resource Management Act (1991) should develop strategies of working with farmers that account for the multiple goal structure of farming styles. This can be done by providing farmers with management options that can be used to satisfy a number of farming goals. The availability of such management options is likely to encourage greater levels of voluntary change. Keywords: farming styles, goals, planning, values

A multi-stakeholder group including land managers, policy agencies and biophysical scientists was establishedto oversee a catchment scale project examining the economic and environmental performance of a representative North Island hill country catchment (296 ha Mangaotama catchment, Whatawhata) in the western Waikato region of New Zealand. The group first identified goals relevant to achieving a "well managed rural hill catchment", including viable businesses, healthy ecosystems, protected landscape values, active partnerships, demonstrable environmental performance, and adequate rural services and infrastructure. The current state of the case study catchment was characterised by collecting data on key indicators chosen by the group to assess business viability and ecosystem health. Data included land use capability, vegetation cover, soil fertility, erosion, water quality, aquatic fauna, plant growth, terrestrial biodiversity, livestock enterprise performance, and economic farm surplus. The results were compared with a range of benchmarks, including adjacent catchments in different land use (water quality, biodiversity) and with hill country pastoral sector survey data (livestock performance and profitability). This comparison demonstrated that from both economic and environmental points of view, the catchment farm system was failing to meet the goals set by the management group. That result provided the impetus for the investigation of ways to improve performance.

No abstract

Understanding the likely market response to the products of genetic engineering is crucial to their success. Views of a random selection of the public were obtained for a hypothetical milk product derived from cows genetically modified to produce a compound giving consumers protection from gastroenteritis or food poisoning. Approximately 55% of the sample (n = 1684) would not have purchased the product, 20% would have, while a further 22% were neutral.