Research Interests:

• Resource and environmental management
• Conservation ecology and ecological restoration
• Sustainability and environmental justice
• Indigeneity, indigenism and (post)colonialism
• Indigenous peoples’ participation in conservation and planning
• Environmental politics of Treaty settlement

	My primary research interest is in the participation of indigenous peoples, especially Maori, in conservation management and environmental planning. Since accepting a position at Auckland University, I have focused on the environmental politics of Treaty of Waitangi settlements. I am particularly interested in (and a little cynical about) the attitude of environmental NGOs to Crown-Maori partnerships in conservation management. This research also focuses on the appropriateness of comanagement, collaborative science and community-based management for resolving conservation conflicts. Environmental justice, postcolonial governance and the political ecology of resource conflicts are integrating themes for all of my research projects.
I have been the principal investigator for several research projects which were commissioned by the Crown Forestry Rental Trust (CFRT) to support the environmental claims of various iwi. Ecological impacts and planning history was a two year project which investigated the inability of Gisborne iwi to influence landscape change and halt environmental degradation through the planning process. Conservation ecologies of Te Urewera examined the historical capacity of Tuhoe communities to coexist with, and participate in the management of, the neighbouring conservation estate. The Wairoa environmental impacts project included an account of the degradation of mahinga kai and associated wetlands at Whakaki, as well as the lack of conservation partnerships at such scenic reserves as Morere and Te Reinga. I have recently completed a project on Tourism development and its influence on the management of Tongariro National Park, and I am currently involved in a fifth Tribunal/CFRT programme of research for the East Coast.
	Beyond these issues of indigenous peoples’s rights in the environment, I am also interested in long-standing dilemmas in environmental management. I have published in the area of habitat protection on private land, part of a broader interest in our capacity to realistically impinge upon private property rights to maintain environmental values. Strategies to motivate the public to participate in environmental projects are another key concern, especially the application of Local Agenda 21 through environmental education, social eco-capital and care group approaches to local environmental enhancement. In respect of the latter, I have onging commitments to community-based restoration projects in various parts of the North Island.

Teaching:

Webs for GEOG.320 (Resources and Environmental Management) and ENVMGT.746 (Collaborative Environmental Management) probably give the best indication of my teaching interests and approach. I also teach in GEOG.102 (Geography of the Human Environment), GEOG.250 (Geographical Research in Practice), GEOG.205 (Environmental Processes and Management) and GEOG.315 (Research Design and Methods in Human Geography).

My favourite teaching context is always in the field, so take a peek at photos from the ENVMGT.746 field trip (which investigates conservation on private land in the Far North District)..

Selected/Recent Journal Articles:

‘Postcolonial conservation and kiekie harvests at Morere – abstracting indigenous knowledge from indigenous polities’, Geographical Research 45(2): 186-193, 2007.

‘Defending community? Indigeneity, self-determination and institutional ambivalence in the restoration of Lake Whakaki’, Geoforum 38(1): 60-72, 2007.

‘Postcolonial predicaments and historiographic anxiety: Treaty settlement in Aotearoa New Zealand’, Journal of Historical Geography 32(2): 444-453, 2006.

‘‘Na whenua, na Tuhoe. ko D.o.C. te partner’ – prospects for comanagement of Te Urewera National Park’, Society and Natural Resources 18(2): 135-152, 2005 (with Hill, S).

‘The limits to participation in disequilibrium ecology: Maori involvement in habitat restoration projects, Te Urewera National Park’, Science as Culture 13(1): 35-72, 2004 (with Hill, S).

‘The historicity of institutional trust and the alienation of Maori land for catchment control at Mangatu, New Zealand’, Environment and History 9(3): 333-359, 2003.

‘Ecospatial outcomes of neoliberal planning: habitat management in Auckland Region, New Zealand’, Environment and Planning B 30(2): 201-218, 2003.

Current PhD students:

• Christine Haney (Co-management at Mutawintji National Park: a critical assessment of competing environmental discourses)
  
  
• Petra Meijer (Public ecology in ecological restoration: How is community-based monitoring linking science, beliefs and values?)
  
  
• Sanjay Sharma (Collaborative management: a postcolonial perspective on public-private partnerships, Nanda Devi Bio-Reserve).
  
  
• Enni Suonio (Interaction between business models and environmental strategies for new media technologies and services).

Current Masters students:

• Josephine Newman (MSc Env.Mgnt. Educative opportunities in restoration).

• Diego Martinez-Schutt (MSc Env.Mgnt. Conservation and development? Examining post-development theory in payments for environmental services).
  

• Fiona Macfarlane (MSc Env.Mgnt. Experiential education and school gardens: pathway to ecological citizenship?)

• Theresa Peregrina (MSc Env.Mgnt. Effectiveness of public involvement in marine conservation: a case study of Malalison, Antique, Philippines)

• Friederike Schubert (MA Dev.Studs (co-supervisor: Yvonne Underhill-Sem). Candidate: Participatory water governance: the replicatability of participatory budgeting in the water sector in Porto Alegre)

• Fiona Sisifa (MSc Env.Mgnt. Revitalizing indigenous ecological knowledge through community-based conservation: giant clam sanctuaries in the Kingdom of Tonga)

• Cameron Smith (MSc Env.Mgnt. Environmental risk and injustice - risk-based zoning of former horticultural land in Auckland).

• Jaime Villalobos (MSc Env.Mgnt. Mining companies and the development of indigenous communities in Western Australia).

Current dissertation students:

• Jessa Boanas-Dewes (PGDipSci Env.Mgnt. Making use of manure: the potential for bioenergy on New Zealand dairy farms)

• Katie Navrotskaya (PGDipSci Env.Mgnt. Following waste)

• Lara Phillips (PGDipSci Env.Mgnt.Capitalising on carbon: competing discourses on the efficacy of emissions trading in New Zealand)