Ministry for the Environment, New Zealand (1990)

The CONCUR team has completed several initiatives in New Zealand. In 1990, the Ministry for the Environment brought John Gamman and Scott McCreary to New Zealand to present a three course series to senior resource planners, officials in the private sector, and Maori leaders in workshops convened in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch. This was followed with a consultancy for the Auckland Regional Council (ARC) emphasizing the use of collaborative planning techniques for regional infrastructure planning. ARC, a national leader in environmental planning, had implemented several innovative programs of public involvement in environmental decision-making. The CONCUR team was asked to help develop a set of recommendations for achieving more effective decision-making on environmental issues in response to the growing sophistication of all involved parties. This effort resulted in the report titled “Findings on the Current Status of Efforts to Resolve Pressing Environmental Disputes in the Auckland Region and Recommendations for the Future.” June, 1990.