Future Buller – Community Engagement Interim Report –
Phase One
Authors: Alyssa Ryan, Di Rossiter, Tracy Hatton
May 2024
Project Overview
Future Buller is a joint long-term project between Buller District Council and the
University of Canterbury, working in collaboration with the local community to find
ways to respond to the changing climate and related events, for now, and into the
future.
Future Buller’s primary objective is to develop a robust climate adaptation plan for the
Buller district.
Community Engagement
The Importance of Engagement
Effective and ongoing community engagement is vital for climate adaptation.
Community engagement can empower the decision-making process and provide an
avenue to work collectively for a shared vision of the future. This is not a one-off
process but a series of ongoing conversations with communities across the next
decades.
The key principles that underpin our approach to engagement design can be
summarised as:
Open and Accountable:
• Engage openly and transparently – be honest about what we know, what we
are doing, and what our constraints are.
• Deliver on commitments made.
• Ensure duty of care to participants and the engagement team.
• Provide accessible, applicable (relevant to the community), and actionable
information and outputs.
• Ensure one common language across all engagement.
Inclusive:
• Engage early and keep engaging.
• Be responsive and flexible – engagement is not a one size fits all programme.
• Provide a sense of agency/self-efficacy.
Collaborative:
• Engage with a genuine desire to listen and incorporate community concerns
and ideas.
• Build strong local partnerships with Mana Whenua, Māori, relevant agencies,
and community groups.
What does successful engagement look like for Future Buller?
1.
Inclusive Engagement: Ensuring that a wide range of community members
with diverse perspectives actively participate in the project.
2.
Acceptance of Adaptation: Achieving community acceptance, even if
reluctant, of adaptation strategies and trigger points for future actions.
3.
Community Behaviour Change: Evidencing proactive steps taken by the
community to adapt to challenges and changes.
4.
Positive Community Sentiment: Maintaining an optimistic and positive
outlook within the community.
5.
Integration into Decisions: Integrating community engagement into decision-
making processes.
Phases
Our community engagement approach is based around four phases aligning with the
broader project goals. This report focuses on the preliminary findings derived from
Phase One.
Phase
Phase 1
Phase 2
Phase 3
Phase 4
Title
What do you
What is at risk?
What are our
Make it happen
value?
options?
Description
Raise
Understand
Explore
Confirm
awareness of
climate risk &
adaptation
‘Preferred
the project &
share information options &
Options’.
identify what is
from the detailed pathways.
Feedback on
valued. Setting
risk analysis.
Provide a
draft adaptation
the scene &
Provide
platform for
plans, pathways,
understanding
opportunities for
community ideas or decision
communities.
questions &
on adaptation
points.
Questions
feedback.
options.
focused on what
is important,
rather than what
might be lost.
Aim
Listen and
Education &
Collaborating with Listen & gather
building
providing space
community &
feedback. Ensure
relationships.
for dialogue.
stakeholders to
a draft plan is
define options &
submitted to
outcomes.
council.
Phase One Activities
In November and December 2023, Future Buller hosted eight community drop-in
sessions across the Buller District to start raising awareness of the project and begin
a dialogue with the Bul er community. Alongside these sessions, an online platform
(Future Buller: Adapting to climate change (bullerdc.govt.nz) was launched to enable
those unable to attend a face-to-face session to share their voice and engage with the
project.
Approximately 90 participants attended the drop-in sessions:
• Karamea
17
• Ngakawau
18
• Mōhikinui
5
• Carter’s Beach # 1
6
• Carter’s Beach #2
20+
• Charleston
8
• Punakaiki
15
• Reefton
1
These drop-in sessions were informal with posters and opportunities to talk to the
project team about the Buller District and community values. As the intent was to listen
to, and build relationships, there was no formal presentation about the project, rather
a brief overview was provided with scope to explain during the conversations. The
online platform continues this approach with community members able to add notes
through the Buller District Council website detailing what they value and like about the
district.
Two of the face-to-face engagements were shared with the West Coast Regional
Council as part of their roadshow about amendments to the natural hazard layers in
the the Te Tai o Poutini Plan (TTPP). Given the shared messaging and cross-over in
engaging and communicating with various communities, it was agreed that Future
Buller would work with WCRC and share part of their space.
All face-to-face sessions were held in community facilities and to minimise
expenditure, the project team attended multiple sessions on each day, and on
consecutive days. This reduced the flexibility around the ‘when’ each workshop was
held and ‘for how long’. We are aware this led to some non-optimal timing for
communities and wil seek to better address this withing our budgetary constraints in
phase two.
Phase One Findings – What do we value?
Post-it notes collected at face-to-face engagements and contributions to the online
platform were analysed to reveal the following key values:
The importance of the natural environment
“I like the clean rivers, bush and beaches” (Charleston resident)
“Sounds of bird life and little traffic” (Karamea resident)
Across many contributors, the importance of the connection and ease of access to the
natural environment was noted. From clean rivers, natural bush, and the sounds of
the sea through to the inverse of little traffic, few people and bird rather than car noise.
Also noted was the dynamic nature of the environment with on-going adaptation
needed.
The importance of community
“A living community with local shops and a pub” (Ngakawau resident)
“Small community that supports each other” (Charleston resident)
Many contributors noted the sense of belonging including historical ties to place, along
with community connectivity and social ties. Also, within this theme it was noted that
non-conformity was OK. Reduced crime was mentioned, along with distance from
larger communities being a good thing.
The importance of affordability
“Affordable property and people moving here from big cities” (Ngakawau resident)
“Price of property is a big driver” (Karamea resident)
Af ordability went hand in hand with amenity of space and natural environment. Also
noted under environmental was the need to maintain a local economy, and links to
tourism between local amenity and the natural environment. Also noted was the need
to enable community members to make good investment choices across adaptation
pathways.
Concerns around this project’s aims and cost
“The decision of BDC to spend $538,000 developing a ‘climate policy’ is yet another
grotesque waste of ratepayer funds” (Westport resident)
“Money should only be spent on identified problems” (Westport resident)
A minority of community members expressed very strong concerns about the wisdom
and expense of this project. Concerns included whether climate change exists,
historical occurrences of expensive reports commissioned but no action taken, the
focus on future rather than current problems, issues around equity and conflicts of
interest in how decisions are made in the region, and concerns about agendas to take
people’s land.
Summary
Phase one of community engagement was intended to generate awareness of the
Future Buller project and begin the discussions about what the community values, and
as a means to inform future dialogue. These four themes represent the community
feedback to date. These are the things that we must ensure are retained and
considered to enable successful climate change adaptation.
Community Engagement Reflections
Some aspects of the first round of engagement proved challenging with opportunities
for our team to learn and adapt.
Key Issues & Challenges
• Strategic integration and prioritisation of communications and community
engagement across multiple projects (with interdependencies) that enables:
o Best use of resources, and
o Best outcome for communities.
• Building trust across our communities following a turbulent post-disaster period.
• Best use of available budget to avoid sub-optimal outcomes e.g., events with
little participation.
• Developing best practice as we work through the process i.e., there are
currently no “off the shelf templates” for the delivery of climate risk assessments
and adaptation plans in Aotearoa, nor for engaging with diverse communities.
• Working effectively under the challenge presented by Buller’s significant
climate risk profile, in the absence of central government policy for these
already highly exposed and impacted communities.
• Working effectively to communicate the considerable and increasing risk to our
built environments and social structures, as well as the complex indirect and
cascading risk profile.
• Keeping our most vulnerable communities safe while we face the reality of no
‘good’ options (for some).
Lessons Learned
The first round of community engagement had some limitations and unpredicted
responses that led to a refocus from hosting community members towards managing
safety for the female project team in the different community spaces. The following
points reflect on the lessons learned from Phase One – What do we value? They also
highlight the key takeaways for subsequent iterations of community engagement as
we progress through the risk and adaptation phases.
1. If possible, avoid earlier than planned engagement:
Future Buller was pulled into early engagement due to TTPP engagement on
coastal hazards. As there was the desire to align the interdependencies of
approaches and messaging, Future Buller began the community engagement with
a different plan than originally intended. To address this, Future Buller will:
• Ensure engagement is scheduled months in advance so we can build
awareness of what is happening and what potential conflicts may arise.
• Ensure alignment between project schedules well in advance by maintaining
effective communication and informing the dif erent projects.
However, consideration for the moving parts to coordinate means the need to
remain flexible may inevitably require adaptation in our engagement planning.
2. Community does not care which organisation we are from (BDC or WCRC or
other):
Future Buller is associated with other projects as there is a similar message or
theme of climate change, exposure, and resilience. To manage this cross-over,
Future Buller will:
• Ensure there is a joined-up approach (both Councils), and if possible, with other
agencies and departments – no ‘passing the buck’.
• Align messaging, the communications strategy, and schedule as it is all one
project (Buller district future resilience).
3. We need to keep working on community awareness and participation:
Lower community participation impacts the diversity of views and reduces process
robustness and legitimacy. We need to do better to:
• Ensure multiple opportunities and mechanisms are provided for engagement
and offered over a period of time, including the various awareness-building
activities and promotion of online engagement.
• Ensure support mechanisms (e.g., transport or online support at the library) are
provided so all community members are given the opportunity to engage,
whether that is at a workshop or through other methods.
• Target already established community networks and groups and community
events and use these to propagate communications.
• Engage directly with youth forums and schools to ensure a diverse range of
voices are heard.
• Consider fewer workshops but at more convenient times for community e.g.,
group Karamea / Northern Buller workshop and hold in, say, Ngakawau, from
3pm – 7pm.
• Use community connectors to connect people and help build awareness of the
project, and the process. Part of this includes establishing a relationship with
the various community connectors so there is a wil ingness to participate and
support the process in some instances.
• Budget availability will impact on the number (but more importantly timing) of
in-person workshops that can be held. This may affect attendance as people
may be less willing or able to travel longer distances to attend workshops.
4. There is misinformation, climate change denial, and mistrust regarding
incompetence or hidden agendas of the Future Buller project:
To address this, Future Buller wil :
• Start communicating and keep communicating (even if we have nothing new to
share) through proactive engagement with The Westport News, other print
media and social media, to fil the gap with facts and counter misinformation
with science.
• Develop and manage a wide range of community relationships which can
alleviate some of the pressure and spread of negative perceptions.
• Budget availability will impact on communications resourcing but there is the
option to maintain a presence through Council’s website and the Future Buller
engagement platform.
• Maintain our key principles of openness and transparency, noting where there
is uncertainty in the science.
5. Confrontations at events are off putting for attendees and project team
members:
• Individual community members intent on derailing the process and female
project team members reported feeling unsafe.
• Consider security to manage escalations for safety of the project team and
other community members attending the workshops.
• Develop mixed community engagement approaches to have a wider reach
throughout the community.
Next Steps
Activities already underway to address our lessons learned include:
• Planning for greater awareness and reach for Phase Two engagement via
engagement with community connectors, greater advance planning, and the
use of a variety of communication channels.
• Continuing to work with aligned projects to ensure integration.
Summary
Community engagement is an iterative process that needs to be flexible and
adaptive in the style and approaches used. There is no clear guide to effective
inclusive engagement and there is always scope to reflect and evaluate on the next
steps. Future Buller needs to establish rapport to build trust and develop lasting
relationships, which wil help to bring awareness to the project but also help to inform
the adaptation planning and decision-making. We continue our efforts to gather data
on ‘What is valued’, to ensure that adaptation plans keep the things that matter most
to Buller communities.
Document Outline
