Christchurch Conversations: Peri-urban potential

Eighty-five percent of New Zealand’s population lives in urban areas. The vast majority of our food is produced in rural areas. But what happens on the transitional land – the peri-urban – between city and countryside?

Currently shelter and sustenance are competing in this zone as our productive food growing landscapes are increasingly encroached upon by urban sprawl.

Yet this transitional area holds the potential to improve the sustainability and resilience of our food systems, while maintaining the liveability of our city through its support of ecosystems.

How do we reconnect to whenua and use this transitional area to serve food production and people? How can we accommodate housing and food production? Where is it best to densify? What is the role of local government, community engagement, developers, planning and design in all of this? What are the barriers and what are we doing right?

With climate change, housing, freshwater quality, biodiversity and food production all issues that need our care and attention, unleashing the potential of the peri-urban has never been so pertinent.

Join us for this vital conversation as we explore what is stopping us from realising this transitional zone’s promise, how it might thrive and what it could support, and the actions we can take.

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Chaired by Lianne Dalziel.

The Christchurch Conversations 2026 programme is supported by the Christchurch City Council through the Sustainability Fund and with the support of the New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO.

Photo courtesy of Christchurch City Council