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 governance 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 five Crown appointees and five Waikato River
Iwi appointees with each 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 (the ‘Authority’) is the sole trustee of the Waikato River Clean-up
Trust (the ‘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. As the sole trustee the
Authority determines which projects receive funding in accordance with criteria set annually to
deliver to its objectives.
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 5).
1.2 The purpose of this document
It is mandatory that the Trust conduct an annual funding round. The Trust reviews priorities
annually to ensure funding continues to be aligned with the objectives of the Waikato River
Clean-up Trust and the Waikato River Authority. To help achieve this the Authority is developing
an overall programme of funding, with a five-to-10 year horizon, to ensure a comprehensive and
connected approach to clean-up projects.
This document forms the Funding Strategy for 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 to projects that will not only meet the requirements set out in the
legislation but most importantly, will lead to the most effective 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 the
Authority believes are a high priority in those geographical 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.
1: Background
and context
Restoring and protecting the health and wellbeing of the Waikato River
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