Maniapoto Upper Waipa River Fisheries Plan

Abstract

The Maniapoto Fish Plan was developed by the Maniapoto Fisheries Reference Group through a series of workshops held at Te Keeti Marae in Otorohanga. The plan provides for the protection, restoration and enhancement of the fisheries resources of the Waipa River catchment. To Maniapoto, the Waipa River is a single indivisible entity that flows from Pekepeke to its confluence with the Waikato River and includes its waters, banks, bed (and all minerals under it) and its streams, waterways, tributaries, lakes, fisheries, vegetation, floodplains, wetlands, islands, springs, geothermal springs, water column, airspace and substratum as well as its metaphysical elements with its own mauri. Waiwaia is the spiritual guardian of the Waipa River and the importance of Waiwaia to Maniapoto is boundless. The Waipa River, through Waiwaia, provides for its people the necessary instruments of life. The Waipa River, its tributaries, wetlands and springs are interwoven into the fabric of the Maniapoto people and their identity, tikanga, reo and wellbeing. This sense of wellbeing and connectedness to the awa is reflected in the Plan.