Land Managers and Land Monitoring Snapshot

A Research Roadmap for Land and Soil (2026-2036)

Research Roadmap Purpose

A council-led research roadmap for land and soil (2026-2036) was developed to guide research investment, prioritisation, and implementation. The roadmap supports sustainable land use, water quality improvement, climate resilience, healthy soils, and biodiversity outcomes across Aotearoa.

Roadmap Summary

The roadmap makes several recommendations with a particular emphasis on implementation to achieve outcomes:

• Adopt and follow the activity roadmap
• Advocate for even greater co-ordination across SIGs to maximise the value of research in areas of joint interest
• Develop an implementation strategy
• Review this roadmap in 2029.

Approach to the roadmap development:

• Evaluated the 2018 roadmap and current LMF and LMG plans.
• Completed a national research stocktake.
• Surveyed councils on priority issues and engaged related SIGs.
• Undertook environmental scanning and futures workshops.
• Identified and tested priority research needs.
• Developed and refined the 10-year roadmap document.

The five goals of the roadmap are:

• Increasing landscape resilience to adverse events
• Building capacity of people and communities
• Informing and influencing wise land use
• Reducing adverse impacts of land use
• Ensuring healthy soils

About the Land Managers Group

LMG annual programme 2026-2027 details

Support the Land Managers Group to strengthen technical leadership, influence science and policy, support implementation of emerging environmental reforms, and maintain a strong national network of land and catchment management professionals.

Goals:

1. Technical expertise and knowledge sharing.
2. Science and policy influence.
3. Stakeholder engagement and behaviour change.
4. Project implementation for catchment outcomes.
5. Strong professional network and collaboration.

Key focus for 2026 2027:

• Strengthen Governance and Strategic Direction
• Implement the Research Roadmap
• Support Freshwater Farm Plan and Policy Implementation
• Build greater understanding of climate adaptation and resilient communities and landscapes
• Build National Capability and Share Good Practice
• Maintain and Strengthen the LMG Network
• Monitor and Influence National Reform

About the Land Monitoring Forum

The purpose of the LMF is to improve the management and monitoring of soil and land resources throughout Aotearoa by sharing and coordinating soil and land science and policy information between regional and unitary councils, and with other agencies where appropriate.

The LMF is focused on the provision of robust science-based information needed to support sustainable soil and land resource management. Council representatives in the LMF are predominantly staff in soil and land science/monitoring roles, or in more applied land management roles.

Our work involves the development, improvement, and reporting of state of the environment indicators, monitoring and modelling approaches, and resource inventory information on (for example): 

• soil quality and trace elements,
• highly productive land,
• soil stability/erosion,
• suspended sediment,
• land fragmentation, and
• land cover/use, etc.

Major Research Priority Themes

The eight research priorities identified by the roadmap are:

• Effecting land-use and management change.
• Mitigation effectiveness and cost-benefit assessment.
• Land-use and resource information.
• Resilience under climate, economic and regulatory change.
• Te ao Māori and mātauranga Māori.
• Soil health and function.
• Emerging contaminants.
• New technologies and AI-enabled monitoring.

Activity Roadmap: Next Steps

These steps are designed to help meet the intended outcomes for land, soil, and catchment management:

1. Develop a national land and soil research repository.
2. Establish and implement annual action plans.
3. Review existing research to identify 'know' or 'do' gaps.
4. Identify and define pathways from research to implementation.
5. Better utilise monitoring data or other existing information.
6. Strengthen cross-government collaboration.
7. Develop KPIs and outcome measures to help track delivery.

Maintaining focus on the connection between the research that is undertaken and how it is used will progress toward the roadmap goals.

Connections

Both the LMF and LMG are primarily connected to the sector priorities or workstreams relating to:

• Science, Data, and Insights and
• Freshwater (via catchment management)

The roadmap identified the following SIGs as being particularly relevant to connect with in support of addressing the research priorities:

• Natural Hazard Risk Management
• River Managers
• Surface Water and Integrated Management
• Geospatial
• Environmental Data

Publications Summary

A research stocktake identified substantial work in the land and soil space since 2018, including:

• 154 publications on mātauranga Māori and decision-making,
• 75 publications on land management practices and policy approaches,
• 56 publications on erosion and sediment modelling, and
• 42 publications on soil health and function.

Representing a mix of MBIE, National Science Challenge, Envirolink, and council-funded research.

Conveners' details

LMF: Haydon Jones – Waikato Regional Council – Haydon.jones@waikatoregion.govt.nz

LMG: Leanna Birch – Auckland Council – leanna.birch@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz

Simon Stokes – Environment Southland 

simon.stokes@es.govt.nz