Whanganui whānau in it for the whenua

Date:  31 July 2024

The intergenerational project is focused on restoring forest across hundreds of hectares of land bordering the Whanganui River.

Where erosion from some land uses threatens the health of the river, Ngahere Manaaki is returning stability to the whenua with pest and weed control, fencing, and planting.

Pest control across 230 hectares has slashed numbers of possums, rats, mustelids, goats and deer, giving the canopy and undergrowth space to recover.

Project Manager Ron Hough says the health of the forest is linked to the health of the people.

“Kei oranga te ngahere, kei oranga te tangata”

“If there’s no life there, there’s no life for us as a people,” says Ron.

After nearly three years of Jobs for Nature funding, Ngahere Manaaki has become an intergenerational mission.

“We try to introduce all the whānau into it when we’re doing the planting, so there’s collectively mokopuna of 36 doing the mahi,” says Ron.

Together, the whānau have planted tens of thousands of plants from their native nursery and conducted 200 hectares of weed control.

For the Hough whānau, it’s an investment into the future.

“Passing those skills down, it’s intergenerational,” says Ron.

“It’s understanding the true value of it all, and what our old people had as a means of survival.”

Background information

Jobs for Nature/Mahi mō te Taiao (JFN) is a $1.19 billion government programme which aims to benefit New Zealand’s environment, people and regional communities.

JFN has been the single largest investment into conservation in this country. It has supercharged community-driven conservation efforts and developed capability.

The funding is administered across five government agencies: DOC, Ministry for the Environment, Ministry for Primary Industries, Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), and Land Information New Zealand.

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