Participatory processes for implementation in Aotearoa New Zealand’s multi-use/user marine spaces? Unacknowledged and unaddressed issues

Highly visible participatory processes (PPs) directed at multi-use/user issues, as distinct from single or sectoral issues, in marine spaces are generally regarded internationally and in Aotearoa New Zealand (ANZ) as a phenomenon of the 21^st century.

In ANZ, single and multi-use/user PPs have originated in a context of regulatory and governance reforms featuring retreating governmental guidance. In the ANZ setting, the governmental institutions embracing marine spaces are four-fold: those of central government, regional and local authorities, Maori entities and a series of recent initiatives focusing on resolving issues in multi-use/user marine spaces.

The contemporary ANZ marine scene is quite unique with its co-existence of Maori and European worldviews, knowledge and modes of governing. It provides an unprecedented opportunity to explore the wider social and collective work of PPs in complex historically and geographically trajectories of power relations. It is also a highly politicised field of emerging interactions.