Photo showing 13 members of the Options Development Groups
Image: DOC

Members of the Options Development Group

Introduction

Find out about the 14 members of the Options Development Group (ODG).

The ODG have been established to make sure the partial reviews of the general policies are guided by perspectives and insights from te ao Māori at a national level.

More information about the ODG.

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Members nominated by whānau, hapū and iwi and Māori organisations

Te ao Māori representatives:

Hoani Langsbury

Hoani Langsbury was a member of the Otago Conservation Board for 10 years, 5 of those as Chairperson. He has been an independent RMA Commissioner for the last 10 years. He has a background in environmental management and is the senior Ecological Consultant for Ngaio House Consulting, a small business he has operated with his wife based at Ōtākou.

An active member of the Otago conservation community, with a diverse skillset and responsibilities, the Chair of the Otago Peninsula Biodiversity Trust, a founding trustee for Wild Dunedin Festival and Predator Free Dunedin. He is the Manager of Ecotourism responsible for the Royal Albatross Centre and Blue Penguins Pukekura at Pukekura.

With experience supporting communities to achieve successful environmental outcomes.  Contributing to community wellbeing and ensuring that long term strategies blend environmental sustainability whilst ensuring social and economic benefits are realized.

He has been an active kaitiaki almost all his life.

Tame Malcolm

Ko Ngāti Tarawhai, Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Ngāraranui, Tapuika, Ngāti Whakaue, Ngāti Ruanui ōku Iwi. I tipu ake au i roto i te takere nui o te waka o Te Arawa, araa, Te Rotoruanui-a-Kahumatamomoe.

I have spent my entire working life involved in conservation – mainly around pest management. I started my working life in the field controlling possums, goats and wallabies. Since then I have gone on to manage multi-faceted programmes and it is here I got a true appreciation for the finer details of policy and its implementation in conservation.

I have worked for DOC, Waikato and Bay of Plenty regional councils, Animal Health boards and research institutes. Nowadays, I am the operations manager for Te Tira Whakamātaki, a not-for-profit entity that helps Māori communities protect their environment.

Aroha Mead

Aroha Te Pareake Mead (Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Porou) is an independent researcher specialising in Māori and indigenous biocultural heritage laws, policies and practices at national and international levels.

Aroha’s career spans senior positions in the public sector (Policy Principal, Te Pūni Kokiri) and academia (Māori Business Unit, Victoria Business School, VUW). She also served for 16 years on the Governing Council of the  International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), also chairing IUCN’s Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy (CEESP) for eight years, and has considerable experience in the development of international conservation policy particularly as it relates to indigenous peoples.

Her current work includes research projects with the Biological Heritage National Science Challenge and Wakatū Incorporation. She also serves on the Kāhui of Te Tira Whakamātaki (Māori Biosecurity Network), Fonterra’s Sustainability Advisory Panel, the Global Steering Committee of the Inclusive Conservation Initiative (GEF and IUCN) and the Board of Genomics Aotearoa.

Aroha has a deep interest in Māori/Indigenous cultural and intellectual property issues, the Wai-262 claim and genetic resources of taonga species.

Beverley Nawarihi Hughes

Ko Pūtauaki te maunga
Ko Rangitāiki te Awa
Ko Ngāti Awa te iwi
Ko Te Pahīpoto te hapū

Bev is an experienced teacher, manager, kaitiaki and resource planner.

As Manager Environment Ngāti Awa, Bev worked with Te Tapatoru ā Toi, a co-management partnership that shares management of Moutohorā (Whale Island), Tauwhare Pā and the Ōhope Scenic Reserve.

Bev has assessed marine mammal concessions, scientific research applications and participated in conservation management planning alongside DOC staff.

Bev was a member of the DOC Māori Focus Group in the review of the NZ Coastal Policy Statement

As Senior Māori Policy Advisor for the Ministry for Culture & Heritage Bev negotiated Protocols with settling iwi, including Ngāi Tūhoe for whom she later worked as Policy Planner for Tūhoe Te Uru Taumatua and Te Urewera Board.

A committed kaitiaki, Bev is semi-retired and lives at Ohiwa with her husband Ric.

Dr Valmaine Toki

Dr Valmaine Toki, Ngāti Rehua Ngātiwai ki Aotea, Ngāpuhi, is an Associate Professor of Law, Te Piringa, Faculty of Law, University of Waikato and holds a BA, LLB (Hons), MBA, LLM and PhD in law.

Valmaine brings experience from teaching and researching across Administrative Law, Local Government Act, Resource Management Act, Tikanga, Te Tiriti and the relevant rights guaranteed to Māori.

As a former Treaty Negotiator for her hapū, member of Marae Committee and Aotea Local Board member Valmaine brings knowledge in working with hapū, local government and Te Papa Atawhai. Her appointment to Te Tai Timu Tai Pari indicates her ability to work as part of an Advisory Team to Ministers.

Valmaine was the first Māori appointed as an expert member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

George Riley

Ko Rakaumangamanga te maunga
Ko Ipipiri te moana
Te Rawhiti te marae
Ko Ngāti Kuta te hapū
Ko Poerua te maunga
Ko Waitangi te awa
Te Tii te marae
Ko Ngāti Rahiri te hapū
Ko Ngāpuhi te iwi
Ko Ngātokimatawhaorua te waka
Ko George Riley ahau

I am married with two children and one grandson but also belong to several very large whanau within the hapū listed above and the Iwi of Te Rarawa and Ngāti Wai. In my recreational time I like to get outside, sometimes hunting and when the weather is suitable on or in the water as well.

It is fundamental to notions of tangata whenua that taking direct action as kaitiaki of the whenua is essential hence I am very honoured to be offered an opportunity to contribute to this piece of work. In my current role, as Pou Whakahaere for Te Rarawa Anga Mua I am pleased to be able to work for one of my other Iwi. Te Rarawa have quadruple bottom line reporting with programmes to nurture Te Au Warawara, Te Oneroa a Tohe and Tauroa as part of our ecological estate. Each of these taonga deserve and require constant attention and mitigation of human impacts. Importantly we try to ensure that our people have the ability to meet their obligations to all of their whenua and to support other iwi in a like vein. I look forward to advancing the purposes of Te Papa Atawhai for the benefit of all New Zealanders.

Dion Tuuta

Dion Tuuta is of Ngāti Mutunga, Ngāti Tama, and Taranaki Iwi descent and is the Chief Executive of Te Ohu Kaimoana.

Dion has extensive senior management experience in the public and private sector and been involved in Māori economic and social development at a national level.  He is well known amongst iwi leadership through his experience in the Treaty settlement sector and Māori economic development.

Dion began his career as a historian for the Waitangi Tribunal, worked at the Crown Forestry Rental Trust and Te Puni Kōkiri before being a Treaty negotiator for his Iwi Ngāti Mutunga.  Prior to his present role Dion was the Chief Executive of Parininihi ki Waitotara Incorporation the largest Maori landowner in Taranaki.

In December Dion will step down from his present role to return to Taranaki to take up the role of Pouwhakahaere (Chief Executive) of Te Kotahitanga o Te Ātiawa.

Steven Wilson

Iwi/hapū: Ngāti Koroki Kahukura, Ngāti Apakura, Ngāti Tura Ngāti Te Ngākau

Technical skills: Environmental Commissioner; facilitation; best practice consultation and engagement with iwi/mana whenua; bi-lingual (English, Māori); Cultural Impact Assessments; consenting processes; strategic planning; dispute resolution

Practical experience: Steven is the CEO of Maximize Consultancy, an organisation building relationships and value in Māori organisations and working with corporate and government partners.  He has held a number of governance and leadership positions.  He is the current deputy chair of the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), the former chair of the EPA’s Statutory Māori Advisory Committee, and has been recognised for helping develop the EPA’s credibility and relationships with iwi and Māori.  Steven has spoken nationally and internationally on best practice consultation and engagement of tāngata whenua in natural resource development projects and regional/national policy and planning projects.  He has been a negotiator and is currently a Strategic Advisor for two Treaty of Waitangi settlement processes.

Members nominated by Conservation Board Chairs

Conservation Board Chair representatives:

Mana Cracknell

Based at Kaingaroa in the Chatham islands, Mana is a retired academic (Massey) with a professional background in community education and development, vocational guidance, bilingual teacher education, transition and continuing education and social and policy studies in adult education.

Mana has also worked in the private sector as a business, planning, marketing, sales, management and software consultant and has appeared as a researcher and expert witness in several Waitangi Tribunal claims, for example, Wai262. 

Mana is an accomplished artist and carver who has been involved in conservation, biodiversity and environmental projects for more than half-a-century, for example, Whangawehi River Cultural Development Plan. His outdoor recreation interests are gardening, native plants, fishing and beekeeping.

Mana is passionate about wharekura waananga, is an "Ihorei" hereditary leader/elder of Rongomaiwahine and Ngaati Kahungungu and links to Rangitane, Kauti Mamoe, Rongomaiwhenua-Moriori imi and to other iwi.

Vicky Dombroski

Vicky is a senior Project and Programme Manager who has been a member of the Taranaki Whanganui Conservation Board since 2014 and is current Chair.

Vicky has a varied career in regional and local economic, community and environmental development projects, including governance and policy development. She spent her early career in high performance sport with the Black Ferns as a selector, advisory board to NZRU, head coach and then manager. 

Vicky has two adult children and one moko. In her downtime she enjoys, whanau time, reading, horse-riding, photography, the beach and doing community environmental projects. Te Ao Māori view that expresses the interconnectedness and the interrelationship of every living and non-living thing, this resonates strongly with Vicky, who has South American indigenous ancestry but born in Aotearoa. 

Nicole McCrossin

Nicole McCrossin works as a principal advisor in the Māori Agribusiness Directorate at the Ministry for Primary Industries, supporting Māori landowners to meet their aspirations through their whenua and primary sector assets.

Her studies and career has centred on the relationship between the Treaty of Waitangi and environmental management, with a particular focus on co-governance and co-management for natural resources. She has had the privilege of working with over forty different iwi/hapū groups across the motu representing the Ministry for the Environment, and later, the Department of Conservation. These roles involved both the negotiation and implementation of natural resources redress as part of Treaty settlements, and included the development of arrangements such as Te Awa Tupua and embedding the Waikato and Waipa River co-governance arrangements within the Crown. Other roles in the public service have considered more generally the rights and interests of Māori in relation to natural resources, and the broader expression and strengthening of the Māori Crown relationship across the public service.  

Outside of work, she spends as much time as possible outdoors, with a preference for the slow pace of tramping in remote places. Nicole is also a student of raranga, having recently completed two years study at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa in Porirua, furthering her desire to learn about history, use, and, protection of New Zealand's plants. She is also a Crown representative on the Wellington Harbour Islands Kaitiaki Board.

DOC employees – ex-officio members

DOC representatives:

Dr Kayla Kingdon-Bebb

Kayla is currently Director, Policy at the Department of Conservation. Prior to this she was the Kaiwhakarite, Te Pae Whakatere leading the partial reviews of the general policies and served for three years as Principal Advisor (and previously, Private Secretary) to two successive Ministers of Conservation.

Kayla has extensive experience in the machinery of government, and has led programmes of cross-agency and collaborative work on policy issues relevant to indigenous rights and interests. In 2019 she was appointed by Hon Nanaia Mahuta to the Technical Working Group on a plan to realise the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Aotearoa/New Zealand.

Kayla has a PhD and MPhil from the University of Cambridge. Her doctoral and master’s theses focused on Treaty law, indigenous customary law and legal pluralism in the context of natural resource management.

Jeff Flavell

Kia ora. Ko Jeff Flavell tāku ingoa
He kaimahi ahau mo Te Papa Atawhai

I have worked in roles in DOC operations as a resource management planner, a community relations and technical support manager, and the acting Conservator in Wellington.  I have also led pest and aquatic science and technical units in DOC.  I have had statutory decision-making responsibilities in several of these roles for the Minister of Conservation or the Director-General of Conservation, under delegation.

I currently work as an adviser in the DOC policy team based in Wellington.  My main work focus in policy is on the Resource Management reforms, Crown Pastoral Land reform, and the mahi of the Options Development Groups that I am now a part of.  I am looking forward to this work on the General Policies.

I was raised in the Hauraki (Te Puru/Thames), but now live in Ngaio, Wellington.  I live there with my wife and one daughter about to leave secondary school.  Another daughter is away from home, studying at university. I am Pākehā, of English, Irish, Czech and German ancestry.

Karl Beckert

In Te Papa Atawhai Karl has had a focus on improving the conservation regulatory system. As Strategic Operations Manager he is now supporting the thinking on how Te Papa Atawhai can improve delivery of mahi on the ground.

Karl’s background is focused on environmental governance and institutions. He has managed investigations into conservation for the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. In this role he was also involved in auditing and testing conservation decision-making within the public sector.

When living overseas, Karl worked as a wildlife advocate for the Nature Conservation Council in NSW Australia, and as an economic and environmental consultant in Switzerland. He also has held the position of Deputy Chief of Staff for New Zealand’s parliamentary opposition.

Heralding from Porirua, Karl’s whakapapa is Ngāti Pikiao, German, and Scottish. He currently lives in Kirikiriroa with his partner and their 9 year old son.

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