title: Lake Taupo: A Multi-Sector Collaborative Partnership towards Sustainable Development

authors: de Jong, Josef

subjects: Lake Taupo

abstract: This thesis has created a case study that centres on stakeholder engagement within Lake Taupo, documenting the largest environmental protection project in New Zealand. The purpose of the case study is to determine how multiple stakeholder perspectives affect the business case for sustainable development. In the late 1990s regional council, along with the community, realised that intensive land use was threatening the pristine quality of water. Forestry and sheep and beef farming are the two dominant productive sectors within the area. Science indicated that due to the porous nature of soil within the catchment, farming deer, dairy and sheep and beef, resulted in an increase of nitrogen entering the lake and consequently reduced water quality. A range of stakeholders, including local, regional, central government, along with many other private businesses, cooperated and engaged in an effort to ensure sustainable development could continue within the Taupo catchment. The process spanning more than ten years from 2000-2011 resulted in legislation that initiated a behaviour change to low intensive land uses. The partnership also included the establishment of a trust to administer the use of public funds to reduce the amount of nitrogen entering the catchment by 20 per cent. The multi-sector, stakeholder partnership, produced innovative methods to secure a future for sustainable development in Taupo. Policy documents and newspaper articles were analysed while interviews were conducted with a range of crucial stakeholders, including forestry trusts, government representatives, farmers and a range of businesses operating within the catchment. The results of the research suggests the involvement of such an array of stakeholders, enabled a coherent and all-encompassing strategy, due to the input from diverse public and private stakeholders, even if some stakeholders took a self-interested approach. The findings illustrate a business case that was created for many landowner stakeholders which aided in the creation of new business models. Engagement enabled the majority of stakeholders to see the perspectives of others because policy development was brought down to a community level. However there was an apparent lack of industry involvement from the farming sector as many stakeholders felt that the farming industry needed to play a crucial role, when in fact, they avoided the issues of their farmer members within the catchment and did not engage until it was too late. A large number of stakeholders felt that an uncertain environment was created due to legislation. Nonetheless the involvement of community groups and businesses such as the Lake Taupo Protection Trust (LTPT) and Mighty River Power (MRP) in trading nitrogen and carbon has enabled the creation of a sound business model for landowners. A sustainable business model by promoting the economic benefits to landowners ensured the farming community had support to generate new revenue streams. Therefore the uncertainty, as local legislation has not come into effect and the uncertainty surrounding a national and international Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), has been diminished as these businesses engage with farmers. The realisation for landowners to rationalise their land for sustainable uses has increased their bottom line and decreased their nitrogen leaching, thus protecting the lake. The Lake Taupo case illustrated important learning‘s that can be applied to any environmental protection project. The inclusion of private and public entities can enable a sustainable future where businesses can be the ‗engines of change.‘

text: Lake Taupo: A Multi-Sector Collaborative Partnership towards Sustainable Development This thesis has created a case study that centres on stakeholder engagement within Lake Taupo, documenting the largest environmental protection project in New Zealand. The purpose of the case study is to determine how multiple stakeholder perspectives affect the business case for sustainable development. In the late 1990s regional council, along with the community, realised that intensive land use was threatening the pristine quality of water. Forestry and sheep and beef farming are the two dominant productive sectors within the area. Science indicated that due to the porous nature of soil within the catchment, farming deer, dairy and sheep and beef, resulted in an increase of nitrogen entering the lake and consequently reduced water quality. A range of stakeholders, including local, regional, central government, along with many other private businesses, cooperated and engaged in an effort to ensure sustainable development could continue within the Taupo catchment. The process spanning more than ten years from 2000-2011 resulted in legislation that initiated a behaviour change to low intensive land uses. The partnership also included the establishment of a trust to administer the use of public funds to reduce the amount of nitrogen entering the catchment by 20 per cent. The multi-sector, stakeholder partnership, produced innovative methods to secure a future for sustainable development in Taupo. Policy documents and newspaper articles were analysed while interviews were conducted with a range of crucial stakeholders, including forestry trusts, government representatives, farmers and a range of businesses operating within the catchment. The results of the research suggests the involvement of such an array of stakeholders, enabled a coherent and all-encompassing strategy, due to the input from diverse public and private stakeholders, even if some stakeholders took a self-interested approach. The findings illustrate a business case that was created for many landowner stakeholders which aided in the creation of new business models. Engagement enabled the majority of stakeholders to see the perspectives of others because policy development was brought down to a community level. However there was an apparent lack of industry involvement from the farming sector as many stakeholders felt that the farming industry needed to play a crucial role, when in fact, they avoided the issues of their farmer members within the catchment and did not engage until it was too late. A large number of stakeholders felt that an uncertain environment was created due to legislation. Nonetheless the involvement of community groups and businesses such as the Lake Taupo Protection Trust (LTPT) and Mighty River Power (MRP) in trading nitrogen and carbon has enabled the creation of a sound business model for landowners. A sustainable business model by promoting the economic benefits to landowners ensured the farming community had support to generate new revenue streams. Therefore the uncertainty, as local legislation has not come into effect and the uncertainty surrounding a national and international Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), has been diminished as these businesses engage with farmers. The realisation for landowners to rationalise their land for sustainable uses has increased their bottom line and decreased their nitrogen leaching, thus protecting the lake. The Lake Taupo case illustrated important learning‘s that can be applied to any environmental protection project. The inclusion of private and public entities can enable a sustainable future where businesses can be the ‗engines of change.‘

year: 2011

title: Portfolio structure and optimisation of momentum returns

authors: Gupta, Kartick

subjects: momentum returns

abstract: This study analyses momentum returns in 54 countries covering 34 years.  It is the first study where optimising programmes are applied to momentum returns and portfolio selection.  Momentum returns have remained a contentious topic and a substantial amount of research purports to support and negate this anomaly.  Momentum studies have previously concentrated on finding the cause of this anomaly or determining whether abnormal returns are present only in a particular dataset.  However, there is no clear consensus regarding how to construct/implement a momentum strategy.  To date it has been unclear as to how many portfolios should be created, whether or not the portfolios should be equally-weighted or value-weighted and how the momentum returns will change when a chosen strategy is constructed/implemented compared to an alternative strategy.  This lack of precision concerning how to construct/implement momentum strategy potentially leads to confounding results.  This current thesis contributes to an understanding of the  structure impact effect  by computing momentum returns for changing portfolio structures and observing the magnitude of the impact on returns on a specially crafted database of 52,593 stocks from 54 countries over the time period 1973-2007.
The two important empirical extensions are the industrial momentum and the 52-week high momentum models.  Both the industrial momentum and 52-week high momentum strategies claim that their returns are superior to the traditional momentum return and possess superior explanatory power.  Empirical evidence, to date, has not been available to attest to whether the results hold true when applied in different markets.  This gap in knowledge motivated this research investigation of multiple countries addressing how different methods of calculating returns, different approaches to momentum strategy, different portfolio weighting process impact upon the robustness of results.
This research also addresses the question of whether momentum returns can be increased through the use of optimisation algorithms.  Traditionally, little attention has been paid to the portfolio weighting with either an equal-weighted or value-weighted approach to allocating funds to the Winner and Loser portfolios.  This study proposes an alternative way of allocating money to the Winner and Loser portfolios with the goal of generating increased returns.  Eight different algorithms are applied to the share returns to determine whether one method is clearly superior to others in maximising the momentum returns for the synthesised portfolios over a period of time.  This is the first study of its type where optimising programmes are applied to momentum returns and portfolio selection and covers several countries.
The results indicate that momentum returns are robust on a global scale and the returns are by and large statistically significant under different portfolio construction approaches.  Both the industrial and 52-week momentum strategies remain positive and statistically significant but do not generate the same magnitude of returns as the conventional momentum return model.  The optimisation of momentum return shows promising results as a number of optimisation techniques do enhance momentum returns.    As the potential to increase returns becomes known, traders will quickly react and there is likely to be a range of new investment products arising.

text: Portfolio structure and optimisation of momentum returns This study analyses momentum returns in 54 countries covering 34 years.  It is the first study where optimising programmes are applied to momentum returns and portfolio selection.  Momentum returns have remained a contentious topic and a substantial amount of research purports to support and negate this anomaly.  Momentum studies have previously concentrated on finding the cause of this anomaly or determining whether abnormal returns are present only in a particular dataset.  However, there is no clear consensus regarding how to construct/implement a momentum strategy.  To date it has been unclear as to how many portfolios should be created, whether or not the portfolios should be equally-weighted or value-weighted and how the momentum returns will change when a chosen strategy is constructed/implemented compared to an alternative strategy.  This lack of precision concerning how to construct/implement momentum strategy potentially leads to confounding results.  This current thesis contributes to an understanding of the  structure impact effect  by computing momentum returns for changing portfolio structures and observing the magnitude of the impact on returns on a specially crafted database of 52,593 stocks from 54 countries over the time period 1973-2007.
The two important empirical extensions are the industrial momentum and the 52-week high momentum models.  Both the industrial momentum and 52-week high momentum strategies claim that their returns are superior to the traditional momentum return and possess superior explanatory power.  Empirical evidence, to date, has not been available to attest to whether the results hold true when applied in different markets.  This gap in knowledge motivated this research investigation of multiple countries addressing how different methods of calculating returns, different approaches to momentum strategy, different portfolio weighting process impact upon the robustness of results.
This research also addresses the question of whether momentum returns can be increased through the use of optimisation algorithms.  Traditionally, little attention has been paid to the portfolio weighting with either an equal-weighted or value-weighted approach to allocating funds to the Winner and Loser portfolios.  This study proposes an alternative way of allocating money to the Winner and Loser portfolios with the goal of generating increased returns.  Eight different algorithms are applied to the share returns to determine whether one method is clearly superior to others in maximising the momentum returns for the synthesised portfolios over a period of time.  This is the first study of its type where optimising programmes are applied to momentum returns and portfolio selection and covers several countries.
The results indicate that momentum returns are robust on a global scale and the returns are by and large statistically significant under different portfolio construction approaches.  Both the industrial and 52-week momentum strategies remain positive and statistically significant but do not generate the same magnitude of returns as the conventional momentum return model.  The optimisation of momentum return shows promising results as a number of optimisation techniques do enhance momentum returns.    As the potential to increase returns becomes known, traders will quickly react and there is likely to be a range of new investment products arising.

year: 2010

title: Kōkō Kehe

authors: Maxwell, Te Kahautu

abstract: This composition placed first in the Poi Composition section. Kōkō Kehe; this composition is about a fish species namely the Kehe. This composition talks about the appearance of this fish it has grennstone pounamu like colour and a moko tattoo pattern like that of a Māori male. It can only be caught on certain nights by a scoop net of kōkō. March is when the kehe is in its best condition to eat. The best relish for the kehe when eaten is a kūmara. This composition was performed by Ōpōtiki Mai Tawhiti at the Te Matatini World Championship Kapa Haka 2015.

text: Kōkō Kehe This composition placed first in the Poi Composition section. Kōkō Kehe; this composition is about a fish species namely the Kehe. This composition talks about the appearance of this fish it has grennstone pounamu like colour and a moko tattoo pattern like that of a Māori male. It can only be caught on certain nights by a scoop net of kōkō. March is when the kehe is in its best condition to eat. The best relish for the kehe when eaten is a kūmara. This composition was performed by Ōpōtiki Mai Tawhiti at the Te Matatini World Championship Kapa Haka 2015.

year: 2013-11-11