Co-Management Arrangements for the Waikato River Implications for Local Government

Abstract

The paper reviews academic and legal discourse to identify how Maori interests in natural resources have been affected by the Resource Management Act 1991, It then examines the implications of the Waikato River Treaty settlement and the co-management arrangements it mandates, for local government in New Zealand. The paper finds that while a comanagement arrangement with the treaty partner do not sit easily with local government’s obligations to be accountable to a pluralist community, the functions and powers mandated by the settlement legislation are able to be accommodated within resource management framework.