Manaaki Kaimai Mamaku Charitable Trust Patron Pa Ropata and chief executive Louise Saunders. Photo / Adrienne Pitts for Our Place Magazine.
Manaaki Kaimai Mamaku Charitable Trust Patron Pa Ropata and chief executive Louise Saunders. Photo / Adrienne Pitts for Our Place Magazine.
A $25,000 lifeline has been thrown to a hapū-led conservation project near Rotorua to help keep the pressure on pests and allow native species more time to recover while further funding is sought.
Ngāti Kearoa, Ngāti Tuara’s Te Whakamaru o Horohoro project is working to protect species such as the long-tailed pekapeka (bat), kākā and kōkako by eradicating feral cats, rats, mustelids and possums from 1300 hectares surrounding the Horohoro maunga, southwest of Rotorua.
BayTrust has granted $300,000 to the trust over the past three years to help top up the government’s Jobs for Nature funding, which largely concluded in June.
But this additional grant, along with collaborative funding from Rotorua Trust, will allow Te Whakamaru o Horohoro to continue until at least mid-2025.
“We were genuinely thrilled for Ngāti Kearoa, Ngāti Tuara,” Manaaki Kaimai Mamaku Charitable Trust chief executive Louise Saunders said.
“The project areas are culturally significant landscapes and this hapū's relationship with taonga species, especially pekapeka, is helping to restore their connection to their whenua.”
Horohoro. Supplied photo.
BayTrust’s grant will cover operational costs for the next six months and allow native species such as kōkako, pekapeka, kākā, kereru, kārearea (falcon), yellow-crowned parakeet and pōpokatea (whitehead) to expand their populations.
“These mobile bird species use forest patches across a wide landscape like stepping stones, so increasing the area under pest animal control beyond the main Mamaku forest improves the resilience of these species and their ability to maintain and increase population numbers,” Saunders said.
Pekapeka monitoring has been undertaken by Ngāti Kearoa, Ngāti Tuara over the past three years, which has allowed their pest control team to refine their rat control programme.
Te Runanga o Ngati Kearoa Ngati Tuara team members Kyle Kiel and Kataraina George.
“The BayTrust funding is a clear acknowledgement of the value of collaborative funding, mana whenua working in te Taiao, and the pressing need to continue the work started by Jobs For Nature.
“We are fortunate to have a huge conservation community in the Bay of Plenty but few mana whenua projects, so BayTrust’s support of iwi-led conservation projects is very special,” she said.
One of the main challenges now that Jobs for Nature funding has largely finished, is how to keep the momentum going.
“The current funding model for conservation is broken — the Government and councils can’t afford the full scope of restoration needed, philanthropy can’t and shouldn’t cover the full cost, and donations shift the cost to an already-stretched community.
“The funding model needs to be completely re-thought and business needs to step into the frame,” Saunders said.
The Manaaki Kaimai Mamaku Charitable Trust is piloting a new investment model, and Bay of Plenty businesses are invited to register their interest now. “Our big goal is to provide businesses with a transparent way of investing directly into impactful local projects, like this one, to deliver sustainable funding that restores sustainable environments.”
BayTrust chief executive Alastair Rhodes acknowledged Te Whakamaru o Horohoro was part of a wider conservation effort covering 300,000ha across the Kaimai Mamaku forests and their catchments.
“There are huge biodiversity benefits across our region if we can permanently control target pest animals,” he said.
“Horohoro has been an environmental haven for centuries before pests were introduced, and we hope this funding will sustain Ngāti Kearoa, Ngāti Tuara’s efforts to restore their whenua to its former glory.”
