[8] In the local dialect, Māori pronounce the wh in Whanganui as [ˀw], a voiced labial–velar approximant combined with a glottal stop,[9] but to non-locals the name sounds like "Wanganui" and is hard to reproduce.

In 1991 the New Zealand Geographic Board considered demands from some local Māori to change the name of the river to Whanganui.

The river was extremely important to early Māori as it was the southern link in a chain of waterways that spanned almost two-thirds of the North Island.

It was one of the chief areas of Māori settlement with its easily fortified cliffs and ample food supplies.

To the southeast, a further, more sparsely populated area of the Tararua District lies between the sources of the Manawatū River near Norsewood and the Pacific coast.

While the open Manawatu Plains became more densely settled by Europeans, inland Ruapehu, Rangitikei, and Whanganui remained more Māori-dominated, remote and independent, and is still heavily forested.

Since then exploitation of the river's commercial potential has opened up the area, often causing friction with local Māori, who have long-standing grievances.

Manawatū-Whanganui as a whole is one of the most important pastoral areas in New Zealand, its status recognised when the government opened the Massey Agricultural College in the 1920s.

Deforestation, burn-offs of timber and scrub and large scale drainage combined with overgrazing, resulted in considerable environmental degradation.

It borders the Waikato, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay and Wellington regions and includes river catchment areas that run from the volcanic plateau to the sea.

A block faulting system underneath the thick sediment has raised a series of domes and gentle depressions.

The Manawatū River begins just inside the Hawke's Bay Region, then flows through a deep gorge to the Manawatu Plains before exiting in the Tasman Sea.

The Whanganui District is more rugged, with canyon-like valleys and gorges carved out of the soft rock by rivers and ocean waves.

The Whanganui is the second-longest river and has the second-largest catchment in the North Island, draining most of the inland region west of Lake Taupō.

In the Manawatū and Horowhenua districts there are sandy soils and swampy hollows around the coast with loess-covered terraces and river flats inland.

Areas close to the volcanic plateau consist largely of pumice soils which lack some essential trace elements but within the region much of this land is occupied by national parks.

The volcanoes Tongariro, Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe are sacred to Māori and were given to the nation by Te Heuheu Tukino IV, paramount chief of Ngati Tuwharetoa.

The regional council, responsible for managing natural and physical resources, provides flood protection and monitors environmental problems such as pest infestation and pollution.

Invasive plant pests such as African feathergrass, goats rue and nodding thistle pose a threat to pastureland in this heavily agricultural-dependent region, and the council has instituted control campaigns.

Possums are perceived as the major animal pest since they damage native forests and endanger cattle production through the spread of bovine tuberculosis.

It is a significant area of salt marsh and mudflat and a valuable feeding ground for many birds including the migratory Eastern bar-tailed Godwit, which flies all the way from Siberia to New Zealand to escape the harsh northern winter.

A higher than average proportion of businesses were engaged in the agriculture, forestry and fishing industries, 6.3% compared with 4.4% nationally.

Research by members of the college into animal genetics in the 1930s led to the development of new breeds of sheep, the Drysdale and the Perendale, which became commercially significant after World War II.

The region produces the largest quantities of barley in the North Island, providing 10% of the national refined crop of 302,804 tonnes in 1995.

While only having 8% of the country's 45,000-hectare vegetable-growing land, the Manawatū-Whanganui region grows 26% of New Zealand's asparagus, 20% of its lettuce, 19% of its brassicas (broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower), and 10% of its carrots and potatoes.

Forestry has a long history in the Manawatū since Palmerston North developed as a saw-milling town, and the region's initial prosperity depended on heavy exploitation of native timbers.

Severe burn-offs destroyed large areas of native forest and subsequent overgrazing affected the soils.

In an attempt to combat erosion problems in sandy soils the government planted forests in the Foxton/Levin area in the early twentieth century.

Some new power schemes are operating, including the southern hemisphere's largest collection[25] of wind farms, with 194 installed turbines and more planned.

The Palmerston North–Gisborne Line and State Highway 3 follow the Manawatū Gorge, linking the region with Hawke's Bay.