Up close and personal: an essential ingredient in transboundary water basin agreements

ABSTRACT

While the media is filled with accounts of water scarcity and threats to water quality, abundant examples of effective transboundary water resource agreements exist throughout the world. This article discusses how consensus was reached between diverse stakeholder groups in the Canterbury Plains District on the South Island of New Zealand. The interdisciplinary, trans-sector water users included the Indigenous Ngāi Tahu. Interviews indicated successful water agreements were positively facilitated by face-to-face interactions during meetings, meals, field trips, and casual interaction, intentionally implemented by the Ngāi Tahu. When encouraged during the stakeholder process, this interpersonal aspect has repeatedly broken through intractable stalemates.

KEYWORDS:

• Transboundary water negotiations
• face-to-face interactions
• collaborative water diplomacy
• trust building
• Aotearoa–New Zealand

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).