RA4 REPORT: Mapping socio-cultural connections

Mapping New Zealanders’ socio-cultural connections to native forests and threatened tree species

March 2024

Wegner S, Bayne K, Palmer M. 2024. Mapping New Zealanders’ socio-cultural connections to native forests and threatened tree species. A report for New Zealand’s Biological Heritage National Science Challenge: Ngā Rākau Taketake. 41 p.

NOTE:

This report is embargoed until 31/01/2025. For further information please contact Simon Wegner at Scion Research

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

The problem:

Kauri and native myrtle species are threatened by the plant pathogens kauri dieback (Phytophthora agathidicida) and myrtle rust (Austropuccinia psidii). As ecological and cultural keystone species, the loss of these trees would have severe impacts on New Zealand’s forest ecosystems, culture and economy. To enable management decisions and research priorities, it is important to understand how these species fit within their wider ecosystems and the risks and impacts associated with the two diseases.

Assessing risk and impact requires characterising the critical elements at risk, establishing a baseline and then measuring change. Despite the importance of native kauri and myrtle species in New Zealand forest ecosystems, culture and economy, there is a lack of quantitative or spatial data about their socio-cultural value. To date, our knowledge about the social and cultural value of native species and forests in New Zealand has been qualitative and limited primarily to local case studies.

This project

This project has sought to:

1. identify the key social, cultural and psychological values or meanings associated with kauri and native myrtle species;
2. develop New Zealand-appropriate quantitative methods to measure people’s socio-cultural attachment to native forests and the affected tree species; and
3. apply these methods to assess and map the current state of socio-cultural connections to native forests across New Zealand.

These aims were accomplished by reviewing the existing literature on the meanings of trees, forests and places in New Zealand, working collaboratively with mana whenua representatives to develop quantitative measures for assessing those connections and deploying a participatory GIS survey to measure and map the forest places that New Zealanders value. This was complemented by the mapping of images taken within native forests and uploaded to social media.

Key results

This research has made valuable progress towards understanding, measuring and spatially assessing the connections that New Zealanders have to native forests and kauri and myrtle species. Representing the input of 2,452 survey participants and incorporating spatial data from 287,400 social media images, the research has produced the national maps illustrating where and how people value native forests. It captures the current state of social, cultural and psychological meanings associated with native forests and the species affected by kauri dieback and myrtle rust, which will enable monitoring of impact over time as the effects of the diseases become more widespread.

Moreover, the measures used expand the literature around place attachment by incorporating aspects of place meanings that are both more reflective and inclusive of Māori perspectives and provide a fuller picture of place meanings for all respondents.

Further work

Although the project made significant progress towards developing assessment methods and providing measurable spatial data illustrating the socio-cultural value of native trees and forests, further work is necessary to improve the accuracy and consistency of the measures used. Additionally, while the present work captures present value, repeat measures will be necessary to assess changes over time.