Function

Function relates to the flows of energy, material, species and human activities across the landscape, and also implies the potential or capacity to provide services within or by the landscape. The view of function illustrated here focuses on both ecological and human development facets of landscape change.

Landscape change should promote resilience and self-sufficiency. Resilience refers to the capacity of the landscape to return to original position after impactful changes. This principle does not point to the landscape to its own end, but to its life supporting function for the community. To achieve resilience, landscape change should be framed around local market mechanisms, to sustain local and regional production and consumption therefore reduce dependence on global markets. This implies that, any global shocks are not felt on the landscape, and if at all, the landscape can easily realign.

160 … thinking from a landscape kind of social point of view that rather than trying to feed China baby milk powder … I am much more comfortable if this land here is producing only 10% of the money turnover but is producing the food and the living for the Omakau basin and for Central Otago … P6.

… maybe … in 30 or 50 years we will be back to growing food ... What a change? … and wool, beautiful merino farming and food that for our local populations but also for export yes. I mean their sustainability is questionable yes. The shipment of fertiliser the shipment of food supplements to feed dairying, feeds and the amount of waste, it’s all got to go somewhere it’s all a demand isn’t it for a product perhaps the world doesn’t need … I 11. … Now I challenge you to go anywhere in New Zealand and find that farm that still, there will be some, but very few will be self-sufficient, will be able to live off their product, and I think we need to go back to that sort of, which will mean that it might in the short term be more expensive but we get products that are grown and produced locally and people exchange their labour for products and things like this. … I 9.

Social resilience is implied when respondents hanker for older days when production was driven by local demands. However, this is factually debatable since meat and wool were primarily produced for the European market. Moreover, resilient landscape change should reflect the climatic conditions. Land uses, landscape spatial patterns and processes should derive from the climatic conditions. The expressions from the respondents below illustrate this.

… the ability of soil and all the rest of it to cope with all this stuff that comes from it … this is a dry landscape, bare rocks … moving to activities using huge volumes of water … C5. … so to sustain a healthy more resilient vegetation cover which again may and should

have a mix of productive purpose and both ecological and environmental servicing

functions as well, integrated into that farming landscape … Resilience means being able

to cope with changes in climate. …but it is farms that can see what is coming and be

able to adapt in time to not suffer, not go under … P5.

The discourse here is not an opposition to global markets per se, but, their effects on this specific landscape. Resilience forms one aspect of sustainability, which will be examined under change management.

Landscape change should mitigate risks.Change is fraught with physical or social risks. Physical risks affect the landscape directly and are seen in form of effects on lands, and in water, locally and downstream. They include effects of intensification trends -the greening of the landscape, and consequent loss of the iconic landscape, and water pollution.

… And umm quite apart from the environmental aspects, you know in terms of what does

intensified land use do to our water resources … the increased sedimentation, nitrates

and all these sort of things so if we go on, the future if we continue to develop as we have been and if we try to accelerate, from my perspective it’s not a good outlook … I 9.

… I would want to be convinced … that there were no risks of adverse effects basically

from effluent if it is dairying on the general hydrology of the valley, those sorts of things. I wouldn’t be asking about landscape issues in a narrow sense at all … P7.

161 Social risks are those that affect the community directly such as financial debts, loss of land, livelihood and cultural heritage. These risks are not just imagined, but there are examples from the lives of the respondents, for example;

… there are a few farmers who will be outside their depth ... -Financially they are putting

conditions on us … we are just not going to be able to do it the way we want to … ORC,

they don’t realise … They are forcing my hand to do this water stuff and extend my

mortgage situation …-otherwise we’ll be forced to sell and dairy will come to this area

and take it up … C1.

… one of the things I believe about … I would put that one up there … one of the things I

believe about this development thing is that by investing capital, borrowing capital and

investing a lot of farmers actually destabilise their farm operation[s] … P6.

… all these little communities that you’ve driven through today used to have schools, there was the original population supporting the rural, supporting the farming activities with

contracts and that sort of thing, all that’s been driven down to a minimum now people

have moved away because there are no longer jobs on the farms … I 9.

… So there’s … what happens is that, it’s not just the vegetation cover that changes and

the size of the paddocks change but also peoples’ relationship to it changes because you

get a transient workforce instead of a stable population you know the whole lot of stuff

that happens socially that affects relationships with the place, you see that … I 11.

Capital intensive landscape change introduces drastic changes to the social fabric. Families in the community have developed over generations but cannot afford to invest in production infrastructure might have to sell; resulting to loss of land and dislocation. This signifies attrition of community as families move away and are replaced by transient populations. Consequently there is change from communities made of families and individuals, therefore a culture, to corporate entities focused not on community but returns on investment. Since the small Central Otago communities cannot afford to meet the demands of government or the markets, but the corporates can afford, therefore this …

… encourages the entry of corporate farming big companies who have farms all over New Zealand, well they don’t have the same community, they don’t share the same community ideals or the community values which have been developed over five generations in this valley. But there is a social change and a social disruption that occurs or is likely to occur, and so those are the things people are starting to talk about … I 9. These risks inform the community responses both to legislation and external pressure. These are threats to continuity of culture, and community, vital parts of the landscape.