Waikato River settlement - Assignment Example

Partnerships normally offer great opportunities to increase the availability of knowledge and the available resources and this opens up opportunities for development of an area which is more inclusive and unified as it brings on board all the concerned parties. Bodansky in his research states that there are a number of economic activities practiced by the Maori including forestry, fishing and agriculture and they normally account for annual income of between 1billion US dollars and 1.9 billion US dollars in their economy but this source of livelihood is under threat from the destruction of the environment and unsustainable use of the environmental resources.

This paper takes a comprehensive overview of the Maori and Crown people scrutinizing their worldviews on different issues including their customary rights, ownership and stewardship. Finally we shall survey the issue of sustainability and how this important issue is under threat and finally recommend solutions for a better and more sustainable environment within the Waikato Basin. Until the year 2004, the Maori people have had a greater control on the management of resources and decision making than it has ever been during the colonial past periods.

A number of treaty settlements have been used to bring the economy of the Maori people into the modern world market as well as the global economy (Selby, 2010). According to a recent analysis, forestry, fishery and agriculture account for about 1-1.9 billion US dollars of the Maori economy every year (NZIER, 2003). However, study has also indicated that this source of livelihood for the society is under threat from unplanned and unsustainable use of the available resources. The Maori leaders are expected to be conscious of the unique relationship they have with the environment and also of the ways in which long term sustainability of the environment, the society, the economy and the cultural values can be ensured.

It is however not enough to simply achieve