Experience

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  Taumata Arowai

  • Wellington, Wellington Region, New Zealand

  • Chief Advisor, Regulatory

    • Oct 2023 - Present
    • Wellington, Wellington Region, New Zealand

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  Department of Conservation (DOC)

  • New Zealand
  • Government Administration
  • 700 & Above Employee

  • Senior Manager, Regulatory Delivery

    • Nov 2022 - Oct 2023

    Delivering strategic and system level regulatory outcomes through leadership of the organisation's resource management, statutory land management and consents functions.

  • National Compliance Manager

    • Mar 2018 - Nov 2022

    Leadership of four teams that delivered investigations into breaches of conservation legislation, systems improvements, national programmes of work in regulatory compliance, and border permits and outreach on the international trade in endangered species.

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  Our Nature Consultancy

  • Cambridge, United Kingdom

  • Managing Director

    • Dec 2015 - Mar 2018
    • Cambridge, United Kingdom

    Our Nature provides assistance to development organisations and charities working on environmental protection and social justice. Specialty areas include river basin management and water quality protection, sanitation and waste, fisheries and marine protection, regulatory compliance, institutional capacity building and corporate sustainability.

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  University of Oxford

  • Oxford, UK

  • Teaching Associate (2009-2013) and Visiting Research Associate (2012-2013)

    • Oct 2009 - Sep 2013
    • Oxford, UK

    Over four years, I taught a course called International Environmental Frameworks to 250 graduate students in the School of Geography and the Environment. This was a core course on the Masters in Environmental Change, Masters in Biodiversity Conservation, and Masters in Nature, Society and Environmental Policy. I lectured on treaty making, the law of the sea, marine pollution and toxic waste treaties, endangered species protection and climate change. I co-convened the Oxford Oceans Policy Symposium from 2009 to 2012. I also taught on the marine field course.While at Oxford University, I was awarded a £80,000 grant from the British Council to establish the project "Unprotected coastal sites of high ecological value in Bangladesh and Pakistan: priorities and protection strategies", under the 'Development Partnerships in Higher Education' funding stream. This grant was delivered over 3 years in collaboration with the University of Karachi (Institute of Environmental Studies), and the University of Dhaka (Department of Zoology). I led a multi-country team assessing priorities and protection strategies for unprotected coastal sites of high ecological value in Bangladesh and Pakistan. We built close working relationships with IUCN (Bangladesh & Pakistan) and WWF (Pakistan) staff who participated in expert working groups, and helped deliver the fieldwork component of the project. An Oxford MPhil student worked with me full-time on the project for a year, and her dissertation was based on our fieldwork results in Bangladesh. I was responsible for overseeing and reporting to the British Council on project spending and delivery.

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  Fauna & Flora International

  • Cambridge, UK

  • Programme Manager, Marine

    • Nov 2010 - Apr 2011
    • Cambridge, UK

    I helped FFI to get its new marine programme funded, in a part time role alongside my Oxford teaching and research. I worked with senior management and regional staff on the development of a portfolio of new coastal conservation projects in East Africa, the Mediterranean and South East Asia, and was part of a team developing out-of-the-box thinking on marine financing.

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  Crown Law Office

  • Wellington, New Zealand

  • Associate Crown Counsel, Treaty and International Law team

    • Mar 2010 - Oct 2010
    • Wellington, New Zealand

    Crown Law is the New Zealand Government’s law practice, housing its top legal advisers. Having worked at Crown Law in the early 2000s, I was able to fill a staffing gap in the indigenous issues and international law team, before returning to the UK in October 2010 to teach at Oxford. In this role, I project managed a large trust law case, mentored junior staff, and provided advice on international law issues such as people smuggling, indigenous people’s seabed interests and territorial sovereignty. The trust law case I managed involved a claim by an indigenous group to over ten thousand acres of land. The Crown was ultimately successful. I had oversight of three to five people at a time, coaching staff working to competing deadlines. I planned and communicated timelines, ran meetings and ensured senior lawyers were involved in key judgment calls.I also assisted departmental managers to negotiate the terms of the return of lands, and education capital injection deals, with indigenous leaders. This role called on me to influence, persuade, and offer a legal perspective that straddled any given departmental interest.

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  The Commonwealth Foundation

  • London, UK

  • Consultant (Strategic Planning, Facilitation and Pacific Islands learning exchange)

    • Apr 2009 - Feb 2010
    • London, UK

    I supported the Foundation in three distinct roles as a consultant. In the first role, I facilitated strategic planning work for the Commonwealth Fisheries Programme. This involved concept note preparation and workshop facilitation. I also synthesised program outputs and findings for reporting back to funders.A second role was facilitating the Environment and Climate Change Assembly at the Commonwealth People’s Forum, in Trinidad and Tobago. A key output was getting consensus on text for the People's Forum brief to the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting.The third role was arranging and co-facilitating a two week study tour for Pacific Island environmental NGO leaders working in coastal communities. It included field trips to each of their communities, meetings with officials, and intensive group exchange in Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and Samoa in late 2008.

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  Department of Conservation (DOC)

  • Head Office Solicitor

    • Apr 2004 - May 2007

    The Department manages protected areas on land and sea, species recovery and coastal policy. I was extensively involved in ocean and marine law reform work, partly redrafting and advising a Parliamentary Select Committee on the Government’s marine reserve law reform. I drafted the marine protection section of legislation implementing a community-driven management regime for New Zealand’s fjords, and advised the Bill’s Select Committee. I was part of an inter-departmental oceans policy team, focusing on establishing an exclusive economic zone environmental impact assessment and permit system. I acted as an advisor to New Zealand Coastal Policy and Marine Protected Areas Policy review teams. I was a founding member of the cross-departmental ‘Oceans Forum’.In the indigenous rights, employment and litigation sphere, I project managed a team of 20 to prepare conservation evidence to a high profile national inquiry into the control and management of New Zealand biodiversity. I was an investigator on misconduct investigations, and counsel in a two day civil court case.I did considerable international legal work, acting as a New Zealand delegate to UN law of the sea meetings on sustainable fisheries, marine debris and ecosystem approaches to ocean management (UNICPOLOS) in 2005 and 2006; and to the UN Ad Hoc Working Group on High Seas Biodiversity in 2006. I also provided input to a new Pacific high seas fisheries treaty, and regional free trade agreement environment clauses.

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  Crown Law Office

  • Wellington & Wairarapa, New Zealand

  • Assistant Crown Counsel, Employment and Education team

    • Nov 2002 - Apr 2004
    • Wellington & Wairarapa, New Zealand

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  Department of Conservation (DOC)

  • Nelson, Marlborough & Tasman, New Zealand

  • Community Relations Officer

    • May 2002 - Nov 2002
    • Nelson, Marlborough & Tasman, New Zealand

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  Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society

  • Wellington & Wairarapa, New Zealand

  • Contractor, Resource Management

    • Mar 2002 - May 2002
    • Wellington & Wairarapa, New Zealand

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  Crown Law Office

  • Wellington & Wairarapa, New Zealand

  • Summer Clerk, Commercial Regulatory team

    • Nov 2001 - Feb 2002
    • Wellington & Wairarapa, New Zealand