Living Water is a 10 year, $20m partnership between Fonterra and New Zealands Department of Conservation. The partnerships shared vision is that a sustainable dairy industry is part of healthy functioning ecosystems that enrich the lives of all New Zealanders. The partnership aims to demonstrate sustainable dairying in healthy freshwater ecosystems in five significant dairying regions.

Established in 2013, the Living Water Partnership brings the complimentary skills of Fonterra and the New Zealand Department of Conservation together to focus on five sensitive water catchments in New Zealand where dairy farming exists. By working with dairy farmers, iwi, hapū, conservation and other community groups, the programme aims to demonstrate how dairy farming can operate as part of healthy freshwater ecosystems. Understanding the uniqueness of each catchment (social, environmental and economic), and undertaking critical research, trials, economic analysis and monitoring projects will allow evaluation of the effectiveness of various approaches and technologies. Proven solutions will then become game-changing and/or scalable exemplars that can be more widely used to help enhance sustainable performance on farms in other catchments across the country.

Initial work undertaken includes collaboration with local communities, iwi and local authorities to understand priorities, expectations and build baseline datasets so that changes arising from specific work can be measured over time. This includes detailed environmental and biodiversity assessments on dairy farms to identify where our farmers can prioritise activities to reduce contaminants and restore freshwater ecosystem resilience. We are now supporting farmers to progress improvement projects.

This initiative is being undertaken in partnership with New Zealands Department of Conservation. Both partners share responsibility for the strategic direction, administration and delivery of the Living Water work programme. A joint steering committee oversees the partnership with delivery managed by a National Partnership Manager, a Sustainable Dairying Manager and two Local Managers (one for North Island and one for South Island). Twenty to thirty staff across both organisations implement the annual work programme.

Fonterra and the New Zealands Department of Conservation