WAI at the WAO Summit
We would like to invite you to join us for this year’s Wao Summit Food & Fibre events, 26th – 31st October.

The Wao Summit is designed to accelerate our community towards a zero carbon future and the Food & Fibre programme delivers everything from practical workshops for monitoring on-farm biodiversity, speaker events covering the latest in science, practice change and consumer demand, to a farm tour visiting local properties to meet the farmers and hear firsthand how they are creating positive environmental outcomes. Find out more about each of the events below.
“We work with landowners in the Upper Clutha every day, and we wanted this year’s summit events to both celebrate the outcomes already being achieved and challenge us to progress at pace towards the national vision for the industry.”
– Mandy Bell, Chair of WAI Wānaka

Wao Summit Food & Fibre Events
TALKS:
Food & Fibre talk:
Vision into Action in the Primary Sector
Fri 29th Oct 2021, 7pm – 9pm
Simon Stokes, a national leader in farm planning for resilient farm businesses, James Brasington, Director of Waterways Centre for Freshwater Management, Andrew Dalziel of Big Wool and John Rodwell, a NZ leader in creating and implementing the Primary Sector vision, will join Mandy Bell to discuss how the primary sector has moved towards actioning the vision of Taiao ora, Tangata ora in the last year.
Would you like carbon with that?
Sat 30th Oct 2021, 7am – 8:30am
The challenges and opportunities with lowering agricultural emissions.
Hosted over breakfast, join a fantastic line-up of guest speakers including Kelly Forster (pictured), Programme Director of He Waka Eke Noa, Becky Lloyd, CE of Toitu, and Tim Loftus, GM Sales and Marketing at NZ Merino, with facilitator Dr Carly Green to update and discuss developments in primary sector climate change requirements.
Find out what landowners can do now to prepare for incoming changes, and the market opportunities that exist for producers with low emissions. This will be a facilitated conversation with plenty of time for questions.
WORKSHOPS:
Indigenous Biodiversity workshop – managing flora and fauna on your farm
Fri 29th Oct 2021, 8am – 11am
Join an impressive line-up of national experts for a practical workshop to better understand and monitor indigenous vegetation, birdlife, soil health and stream health on your property.
Dr David Norton, Simon Stokes, and Ash Rabel will take you through the importance of maintaining a healthy biodiversity on your property and tracking it over time as an indication of the health of your property.

Understanding and Calculating Agricultural Emissions workshop
Fri 29th Oct 2021, 11:30am – 1:30pm
Join Dr Carly Green, global carbon expert for agriculture and forestry, to delve into the calculation of on-farm emissions and what these numbers mean.
Whether you have completed your calculations or are thinking about getting started, this workshop will set you up with the knowledge and tools to undertake ‘no-regrets’ actions you can do now to prepare for regulation changes and take advantage of market opportunities.
Forestry for Carbon Sequestration workshop – The ETS and Mitigation for Agricultural Emissions
Fri 29th Oct 2021, 2:30pm – 4:30pm
Join Dr Carly Green, IPCC Lead Author, PhD in International Climate Change Policy, to understand the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) and how forestry – both native and exotic – can sequester carbon and earn landowners money.
This workshop will cover what is and isn’t eligible for the ETS, how you can map areas of eligible forest using free software, and opportunities to develop a sequestration portfolio.
TOUR:

Food & Fibre Farm Tour
Sat 30th Oct 2021, 9am – 4pm
This event is a summit favourite – a great opportunity for both non-farmers and farmers to visit some of our iconic local properties, meet the people behind the farm gate and see the work they are doing to achieve environmental goals on-farm. They are each joined by a subject expert to give a broader context to this work.
This year we are lucky to visit the following four properties:
Spots Creek – Indigenous biodiversity with Hamish & Anna Mackay and Dr David Norton.
Mt Brown – Animal pest control with the Stacey and Jen Anderson and Jonathan Clark from FTP Solutions.
Glen Dene – Integrated farm planning for environmental management with Richard and Sarah Burdon and Simon Stokes.
Luggate Creek – Te Mana o te Wai with Luggate landowners, community and iwi.

Visit the Wao Summit website or return to the WAI homepage.