1.1 The Waikato River Authority and its role
The overarching purpose of the legislation that created the Waikato River Authority and Clean-up
Trust is to restore and protect the health and wellbeing of the Waikato River and its catchment for
future generations.
Importantly this enabling legislation represents a new era of co-management for the Waikato
River and its catchment. This is manifested in a number of ways including the make-up of the
Waikato River Authority and the Clean-up Trust – each with fve Crown appointees, including a co-
chair, and fve Waikato River Iwi appointees, including a co-chair.
The purpose of the Waikato River Authority is to:
• set the primary direction through the Vision and Strategy to achieve the restoration and
protection of the health and wellbeing of the Waikato River for future generations
• promote an integrated, holistic, and co-ordinated approach to the implementation of the
Vision and Strategy and the management of the Waikato River
• fund rehabilitation initiatives for the Waikato River in its role as trustee for the Waikato
River Clean-up Trust.
The Waikato River Authority is the sole trustee of the Waikato River Clean-up Trust. The Trust
administers and distributes a contestable fund to work towards the restoration and protection
of the health and wellbeing of the Waikato River for present and future generations (this forms
the Trust’s objective). In doing so it must pay adequate regard to the Vision and Strategy and the
Waikato River Independent Scoping Study. The Trustees of the Clean-Up Trust determine which
projects receive funding.
The area that this Strategy applies to is the Waikato River and its catchment from Huka Falls to Te
Puuaha o Waikato and the upper catchment of the Waipa River through to its junction with the
Waikato River as shown in the map on page 15.
1.2 The purpose of this Document
This document forms the Funding Strategy for 2012/2013 for the Waikato River Clean-up Trust.
It presents the criteria that the Authority believes will best position the Trust to award funds in a
fair and consistent manner and for projects that will not only meet the requirements set out in the
legislation but most importantly, will lead to the most efective response to the restoration and
protection of the health and wellbeing of the Waikato River and its catchment.
Priorities are presented both in terms of the geographical areas the Authority believes should
draw particular focus from applicants for funding, and also the nature of the projects we believe
are a high priority in those areas.
In preparing this Strategy, the Authority has recognised that there will be a range of applications,
from very small and short term or one-o projects through to much larger, complex and longer
term projects. It is intended that the criteria are exible enough to provide for a wide range of
applicants to seek funds, and that consequently a wide range of projects will be viable.
It is mandatory that the Trust will conduct an annual funding round. It will review priorities
annually to ensure funding continues to be aligned with the goal of the Waikato River Clean-up
Trust and the Waikato River Authority. To help achieve this the Authority will be moving towards
an overall programme of funding, with a fve to 10 year horizon, to assure a comprehensive and
connected approach to clean-up projects. Applications for projects that require funding over
multiple years will be considered.
1: Background
& Context
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