Our Changing World: Iwi-led conservation in the Kaimai Mamuku ranges

Photo: RNZ Follow Our Changing World on Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts. It was during the Covid-19 pandemic and Mohi Korohina was working in Australia when he got the call. It was his grandfather - 'no good staying in Aussie', he said, 'Come home. There's a job here and you can help our people.' Returning to reconnect with whenua and whānau, Mohi became team leader for Ngāti Hinerangi's new conservation project - Wairere Mahi. Wairere Mahi The Wairere Falls carpark at the base of the Kaimai Mamuku ranges is just a short drive out of Matamata. The walk to the waterfall viewing platform is normally a busy one. The falls, which can be seen from the road, are a spectacular sight even at a distance. But the track has been closed since July 2025 due to safety concerns. Wairere Falls is a special place to Ngāti Hinerangi and neighbouring iwi. A pathway beside the waterfall was once a vital connection between Waikato and Tauranga iwi, who traded harakeke (flax) for kaimoana (seafood). Part of the Wairere Scenic Reserve was returned to Ngāti Hinerangi in their 2021 Treaty of Waitangi settlement, and it's here that Wairere Mahi began their pest trapping work. First though, was the R & D, says Mohi. He was previously a farmer and some members of the team had hunting backgrounds but the skills of trapping and using locator technology to stay safe in the bush were new, he says. A 40 hectares area at the base of the falls was the testing ground. Once those trap lines were established, the team set their sights on a larger area at the top of the ranges. The original plan was to move up and trap across the top of the falls but the mountain and hut locations dictated a change of plan, says Mohi. "We came up with a new plan that we would go over to Te Tuhi and put in a thousand hectares over there." Photo: RNZ / Claire Concannon Alongside this trapping work, Mohi is running a project to restore two small nearby lakes in an area also returned to the iwi. The goal is to remove the weeds and replant natives, with a focus on those plants important for rongoā Māori, says Mohi. "My personal idea for this area is that it becomes a hub for healing, that we can bring our kaumatua, that we can bring our aunties and our uncles out here." But ambitious goals need long-term resourcing. The Killarney Lakes project is currently being supported in-part by Matariki Forests who own the forestry surrounding the lakes, Wai Connections funding administered through GoEco, and support from umbrella organisation Manaaki Kaimai Mamuku Trust. Some of this is only short term. Funding for Wairere Mahi originally came from the iwi capability fund, a pot of Jobs for Nature money, set aside for hapū and iwi to build capability in the conservation space. At the height of the trapping project it employed nine workers. Now it's just Mohi. The future of nature funding? It's not an unusual tale for a Jobs for Nature-funded project. This pandemic-era $1.2 billion fund ran from July 2020 to the end of June 2025. While many projects finished once the money dried up, some have managed to source funding from elsewhere to continue and Manaaki Kaimai Mamuku Trust chief executive Louise Saunders hopes that will be their future too. The co-governed charitable trust was set up in 2019, built on the back of 10 years of community concern about the state of the Kaimai Mamuku ranges. When Jobs for Nature came on the scene, the trust was allocated $19.4 million from the iwi capability portion to work with iwi and hapū throughout the area to develop business cases for their own individual projects, and subsequently support them. At the height of the funding there were 12 projects. Now there are eight. They are spread across the Kaimai Mamuku ranges, across different ecosystems, and with each iwi or hapū having their own goals - pest animal control, weed removal, native planting and monitoring certain taonga species. The trust's support is specific to whatever the project needs, whether that is help with budgeting, report writing, health and safety systems or different technical aspects. "You name it, we've done it," says Louise, "because each project entity is independent... it's its own individual entity. And by building their capability, we're building their resilience for the long term as an organisation." The trust has enough money to keep the lights on until the last quarter of this year, and is applying to local council and philanthropic funds for the next few years. But looking to the future, Louise sees an opportunity in enabling businesses to contribute to nature funding. "Whether [it's] because they want to support a local project or because they have a brand image or reputational reason…or because they need to be reporting on the nature risk or nature impact… or because there are trade restrictions… There's all sorts of reasons why businesses are considering what their position on nature is right...

Our Changing World: Iwi-led conservation in the Kaimai Mamuku ranges

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