Building Resilience
Foreword
New Zealand farmers, growers and foresters have always faced the risk of adverse events: managing climatic risk is part of primary production. Now we also face the impact of accelerated climate change. We need to plan for bigger, more intense and more frequent adverse weather events. Drought is expected to increase in already drought-prone areas; heavy rainfall may increase; average annual rainfall may decrease; and temperatures are expected to rise, particularly in winter and in the north.
The effects of adverse events on primary production mean it is essential that recovery is speedy, effective and mitigates against future events. All of us – central government, local government, industry, communities and individuals – need to do everything we can to reduce our vulnerability and build our resilience to adverse events.
As part of managing these risks, the Government has asked the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) to review the On-farm Adverse Events Recovery Framework.
MAF has received constructive input that has fed into this document’s development. One of the underlying themes of the input has been the importance of having a clear and well-communicated adverse events framework to assist government, public and private sector organisations, and individuals understand their roles in recovery work.
This discussion document is a significant step towards defining those roles. I am confident it will help stimulate debate on the importance of community adverse events planning and help build more resilient rural communities, but we need your experience and expertise to make it work. I encourage you to consider the options raised and to send your feedback to MAF in time for the submission closing date of 31 October 2006.
Hon Jim Anderton
Minister of Agriculture
Minister of Forestry
Contact for Enquiries
email: adverseevents_feedback@maf.govt.nz
phone number: (07) 957 8311
