Unloading the weight

A weight comes with a top-down, regulatory approach – it’s heavy and creates drag.

For many that weight becomes an energy sink, stifling confidence, draining the bank balance and crushing wellbeing.

But if you look to the deep South, there’s an organisation that’s shining a light on a way forward that achieves the same environmental outcomes but builds energy and makes it contagious.

It’s creating and spreading enthusiasm, bringing enjoyment and drawing in both the younger and older generations.

It’s a model aptly named Thriving Southland.

At the South Island Dairy Event (SIDE) conference, held in Southland this year, Thriving Southland senior catchment co-ordinator Rachael Halder shared insights into how the organisation came about through a farmer-driven initiative and why it’s been so successful.

About five years ago a group of Southland farmers from across the farming sectors came together to work out what they could do to support the catchment group model.

“They said ‘hey, this catchment group model is working really well, but it has a lot of hurdles’.

“There are a lot of great ambitions but we have volunteer burnout, it’s difficult accessing funding and things like reporting and budgeting are all putting a strain on groups’ abilities to deliver on big projects,” Rachael says.

A bit of brainstorming and they came up with the idea of an entity to work alongside catchment groups and so Thriving Southland was born.

Its role is to support the individual groups but also give them some collective clout when it comes to sourcing funding.

It employs a team to help with the administrative aspects of managing the funding, bringing in experts, reporting and organising events as well as facilitating the extension of knowledge and best practice coming out of the myriad projects the catchment groups are now getting through.

The organisation’s website www.thrivingsouthland.co.nz already hosts a huge range of information, project findings and the tools developed through catchment groups’ projects.

It’s tangible proof that, when supported, the age-old catchment group model, working from the grassroots up, really can deliver – all while lifting spirits and putting a spring back in farmers’ steps.

The organisation and outcomes have spurred on other farmers throughout the province to seek out the causes and solutions to the issues in their own areas so that Thriving Southland now sits – or rather “runs” beside 35 engaged catchment groups.

Three years ago, there were 18 such groups. Each is individual in its own right, having its own structure and way of operating.

“We’re there to help them along. It means these groups can take on projects in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“We’re helping with the budgeting and ensuring the projects can deliver on their contracts with funders.

“The people involved in these catchment groups are all volunteers, farmers and community members – part of what we’re doing is helping reduce that volunteer burnout factor,” Rachael says.

Thriving Southland chief executive Richard Kyte says the initial tranche of funding came from the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) with $6.7 million over three years.

That three years ran out at the end of June, with the group securing another $2.4m to cover the next two years, he says.

The Ministry of Business Industry and Enterprise (MBIE) has supported projects along with AgMardt and others.

“Securing funding is an important part of what we do with a project manager working on that as well as managing the funding.

“We have five catchment group co-ordinators – some are part-time and that’s what’s enabling and supporting the work of the community members who put so much of themselves into Its role is to support the individual groups but also give them some collective clout when it comes to sourcing funding.

It employs a team to help with the administrative aspects of managing the funding, bringing in experts, reporting and organising events as well as facilitating the extension of knowledge and best practice coming out of the myriad projects the catchment groups are now getting through.

The organisation’s website www.thrivingsouthland.co.nz already hosts a huge range of information, project findings and the tools developed through catchment groups’ projects.

It’s tangible proof that, when supported, the age-old catchment group model, working from the grassroots up, really can deliver – all while lifting spirits and putting a spring back in farmers’ steps.

The organisation and outcomes have spurred on other farmers throughout the province to seek out the causes and solutions to the issues in their own areas so that Thriving Southland now sits – or rather “runs” beside 35 engaged catchment groups.

Three years ago, there were 18 such groups. Each is individual in its own right, having its own structure and way of operating.

“We’re there to help them along. It means these groups can take on projects in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“We’re helping with the budgeting and ensuring the projects can deliver on their contracts with funders.

“The people involved in these catchment groups are all volunteers, farmers and community members – part of what we’re doing is helping reduce that volunteer burnout factor,” Rachael says.

Thriving Southland chief executive Richard Kyte says the initial tranche of funding came from the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) with $6.7 million over three years.

That three years ran out at the end of June, with the group securing another $2.4m to cover the next two years, he says.

The Ministry of Business Industry and Enterprise (MBIE) has supported projects along with AgMardt and others.

“Securing funding is an important part of what we do with a project manager working on that as well as managing the funding.

“We have five catchment group co-ordinators – some are part-time and that’s what’s enabling and supporting the work of the community members who put so much of themselves into projects instigated by the groups include detailed mapping that overlays an array of previously collected data such as soils information and radiometric LIDAR data.

That’s then giving farmers in the mapped areas highly valuable information down to a paddock level so they can see where mitigations are best targeted, Richard says.

“We have projects that involve consultants modelling various farm system scenarios to assess options for nutrient loss and emissions reductions, detailed water quality sampling and complex scientific data collection – there’s a huge range and each project has come as a result of catchment groups deciding what they need in their area,” he says.

Not all projects are complex, though.

Rachael explains that some have been about developing leadership and others supporting community wellbeing gatherings such as lambing and calving events and Surfing for Farmers. Catchment groups can build community spirit and help bring people together.

That’s important to break down cross-sector barriers, Rachael says.

“We have lost a lot of trust in our rural communities over the years, sectors have become split and the things that used to bring people together often aren’t there anymore.

“We’re trying to re-path a lot of roads that haven’t been gone down for a while and say – we’re in this together, let’s be accountable for our patch.

“As much as it is very much environmentally driven, it’s also community-driven.”