Mana refers to authority, handed down through generations, to take action in the world. This is an authority infused with responsibility – to protect and care for people and communities (manaakitanga), and to protect and care for the environment and its taonga (kaitiakitanga). 

In te ao Māori, mana whenua (mana in relation to places) belongs to the hapū or community – they collectively possess authority and corresponding obligations.   

Rangatiratanga is chiefly authority. It is the expression of the community’s mana, through community leadership and guidance. It includes economic, social, political and environmental leadership, and carries with it obligations to secure the community’s interests, to care for its people, and to sustain and nurture collectively held lands and the wider environment.

In environmental governance, recognising mana and rangatiratanga mean providing for tangata whenua to exercise their rights as decision-makers over ancestral lands and taonga; and providing for political processes, governance arrangements, and policies that are mana-enhancing for all concerned.