Wellington Regional Biodiversity Framework

Designing a shared way forward for our region's biodiversity

The Collaborative Working Group (CWG)

The CWG was established in May 2019. This group is developing the framework for supporting and joining up efforts to improve native biodiversity across the Wellington Region.

“As a new group we’re committed to working together in a shared way that is informed by our region’s unique biodiversity approaches, past, present and future. In the end, we are each responsible for the legacy we leave for future generations.” - Sharlene Maoate-Davis, co-chair of the group

Our achievements

The initial conceptual framework has been developed. Over the next few months, we will be adding to and collectively weaving the framework.

Our achievements so far include:

• A launch at Te Papa to introduce the working group (20 July 2019)
• Exploring what Mātauranga Maori means to each member of the group
• Establishing how we will work as a group – kawa and tikanga
• Presenting at the Wellington workshop for the New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy discussion document
• Attendance and presenting at regional forums
• Developing the foundation of the framework

We expect to complete the project by June 2021 and will be testing concepts, ideas and proposals with the wider community as we go.

Background to CWG

Our region is full of enthusiastic people and agencies working hard to improve this unique environment. Planting trees, protecting rivers, supporting native birds, cleaning up coastlines and more.

All this effort is going a long way to restoring the damage done to our ecosystems over time. However there’s still much more we can do.

So we’re taking the opportunity to help connect all our conservation efforts, work better together, and take even bigger steps forward for the environment in our region.

The project to get us there

The Wellington Regional Biodiversity Framework (WRBF) project will bring together agencies, mana whenua, NGOs, community groups, industry groups, and others to design a Framework.

The Framework will look at voluntary approaches to supporting biodiversity and also acknowledge related policies and regulations.

The process

This project was started by Greater Wellington Regional Council in partnership with mana whenua and the Department of Conservation. We ran a series of workshops in 2018 to identify opportunities.

We then made an open call on this page for applicants to apply to be on the Collaborative Working Group (CWG) for the project.

Our role now becomes group member, supporter and facilitator. The group, independently co-chaired in partnership with mana whenua, will drive the project forward.

To read the terms of reference for the group, see the document library to the right.

The Terms of Reference were set in place when the Working Group formed in 2019. Recently, a different version of the ToR (dated February 2020) was mistakenly provided here. The original, and still current, ToR has now be reinstated. We apologise for any confusion or inconvenience.

To stay informed of the progress of this project, click on the 'register for updates' button at the top of this page.