Download Participatory Pathways for Primary Industries: Climate-change adaptation to reduce risk and realise opportunities

Climate change is increasing risks for New Zealand’s primary industries, with more frequent extremes, shifting rainfall patterns, and rising temperatures threatening productivity and rural livelihoods. This report outlines a participatory adaptation pathways approach that engages stakeholders to co-design locally relevant strategies, enabling flexible, long-term planning that combines incremental and transformational options to build resilience under uncertainty.

The participatory approach has been formalised as Farms That Last, a practical toolkit to enable farming communities to effectively manage and proactively respond to climate impacts and other drivers of change. Over a series of workshops, Farms that Last works through a vision for a future that centres farming and benefits farming communities. The aim is for those involved to think about multiple possible futures and the many different ways everyone can achieve their goals.