Indigenous and local peoples' values of estuarine shellfisheries: moving towards holistic-based catchment management

Estuaries support a wide range of human activities and values, but are one of the most anthropogenically impacted ecosystems in the world. Ki uta ki tai is a holistic view of waterways that is embodied within Ngi Tahu environmental management, which acknowledges the connectivity between environmental systems and people with the environment. While this philosophy is referred to within current policies, management does not effectively account for or reflect this philosophy. This research evaluated indigenous and local socio-cultural values provided by estuarine shellfisheries across Waitaha/Canterbury and found Ngi Tahu place-based interaction was impacted by management and anthropogenic inputs. Participants' estuarine stressors aligned with global stressors. Experienced harvesters/fishers adapted their practices to these stressors, while less experienced harvesters/fishers visited high food-risk sites. Effective management requires identifying the risks to socio-cultural values towards accountability of activities, to meet the ethic of ki uta ki tai. Glossary of Maori words:kaitiaki: an official custodian/guardian as designated by tangata whenua, but the general and traditional role of environment resource managing is practiced by all tangata whenua members; kaitiakitanga: the exercise of customary custodianship/environmental resource management by those who hold mana whenua/moana status for a particular area or resource; kanohi-ki-te-kanohi: face-to-face; kaupapa Maori principles: Maori-specific paradigm and research methodologies; ki uta ki tai: literally inland-coastward'/from inland-to-sea'/from mountain-to-sea'; koha: gift, gift giving (an act of reciprocity); mahinga kai: places at which food (and other commodities) were extracted or produced'; Maori: literally normal, the indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ); mana whenua: hap/iwi who hold tribal authority over land or territory in a particular area; mtaitai reserve: customary fishery management area; mtauranga Maori (also shortened to mtauranga): the intellect, knowledge and creativity created by Maori to explain their experience of the world; hap: sub-tribe'/extended kinship group; iwi: tribe/nation; Ngi Tahu: the principal tribe with authority of most of Te Wai Pounamu; rhui: a closure/restriction on harvesting and/or activities within a site, due to, but not limited to, health and environmental disturbances, any incidents from being in the sea, or marine habitat restoration purposes; tangata whenua: the indigenous people of Aotearoa NZ; Te Wai Pounamu: literally The Greenstone Waters', the South Island of Aotearoa New Zealand; tikanga: Maori cultural customs; trangawaewae: place where one has rights of residence and belonging through kinship and whakapapa; Waitaha (originally Ng Pkihi Whakatakataka o Waitaha): Canterbury; whakapapa: genealogy, lineage; whanaungatanga: relationship building, kinship.