Co-Governance and Local Empowerment? Conservation Partnership Frameworks and Marine Protection at Mimiwhangata, New Zealand

This study examines the conservation partnership activities conducted as part of the Mimiwhangata marine reserve project. This project involved the formation of a partnership between the Department of Conservation (DOC) and an indigenous Maori community, who sought to establish and co-govern a marine reserve at Mimiwhangata, New Zealand (NZ). Drawing on the discourse of contemporary Treaty of Waitangi politics, the article argues that participatory processes can be effective means through which to pursue both positive conservation and social outcomes. However, unless the appropriate legislative framework exists in which meaningful ongoing community involvement and control can be constituted, partnership-based conservation is unlikely to deliver substantial conservation or social gains. Fundamental issues concerning indigenous rights, authority, and control persist within the “partnership” framework, which existing marine reserve governance mechanisms in New Zealand do not resolve.