Given the patchiness of regulatory policy, Aotearoa New Zealand is largely reliant on farmers voluntarily adopting biodiversity-supporting farming practices. This research explores the relationship Aotearoa New Zealand dairy farmers have with their land, their goals, values, priorities, and the implications for native biodiversity on farms. Twenty dairy farmers across the Waikato and Canterbury were interviewed.

The next stage of this research will explore the multiple challenges facing the dairy industry in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Until we can draw a clear connection between native biodiversity and the economic viability of a dairy farm, making space for natives will likely depend on landowners’ value hierarchies, i.e., the relative importance they attribute to different values. If incorporating native biodiversity into the farm landscape is not high enough on a farmer’s list of priorities (and is not required or incentivised by local governing or industry bodies), it will not happen. Given the current limitations, incorporating care for native biodiversity into what it means to be a good farmer could provide one avenue for supporting the transformation of agricultural landscapes.

This research further uncovered differences in meanings, revealing a need to work towards shared understandings of what good land care and healthy landscapes look like in the Aotearoa context.

Project Collaborators

| Lincoln University | University of Waikato | Agribusiness and Economics Research Unit (AERU) |