LAST year Te Whanau a Apanui and Ngati Porou were invited by the Minister of Conservation to pull together a budget bid to Government to halt the ongoing government neglect of Te Raukumara.
Department of Conservation worker Graeme Atkins (Ngati Porou) has been revealing the extreme damage and collapse of native forest across Te Raukumara Range for some time.
The forest is in freefall collapse and has had virtually no pest control since possums and deer arrived in the 1960s and 70s. His shocking photos of dead totara, drone and helicopter footage show a large scale catastrophe underway.
Many wananga and hui have been called, resulting in the Raukumara Pae Maunga Restoration Project covering over 180,000 rugged Raukumara hectares of Maori land and land managed by DoC. It is the eastern most end of the largest continuous native bush in the North Island (Te Urewera/Whirinaki/Te Raukumara).
The $35 million iwi-led budget bid is wholistic, said Ora Barlow-Tukaki, a spokesperson from Te Whanau a Apanui.
“Our aim is to bring back taonga that we have lost – like titi, kiwi and pekapeka the native bats. These and other taonga have disappeared from our areas in a single human lifetime because of introduced animals.
“We want huge flocks of kereru and kaka again and the death of ancient trees to stop,” she said. “We want rongoa plants to return, we need to address deforestation and sedimentation that fires downstream and ends up in our coastal waters.
“This plan is iwi-led, jobs-rich and a ready to go proposal that will stimulate the local economy. In this time of COVID-19 economic downturn we need look at localising our workforce and looking at projects through a climate change lens”, she said.
She said recovery of life within Te Raukumara would allow the ngahere to thrive once more and turn a sick forest into a healthy carbon sink again.
As trees killed by introduced possums and deer rotted away, the forest went from being a carbon sink to being a carbon emitter contributing to the climate emergency.
Ms Barlow-Tukaki said East Coast iwi were already working with scientists at NIWA to set up research stations to see how much carbon dioxide was being lost as the forest died. This research would also monitor the carbon dioxide that became locked up as the forest became healthy again.
“We are ‘shovel ready’ and our aspirations are clear: we want hapu and carbon conscious development. Covid-19 could be something that stays with us for some time – we need projects that can help recover our national and local economy. The time is right for the Government to fully fund the Raukumara Pae Maunga Restoration Project”.
Over the last three weeks Te Whanau-a-Apanui have actively been working with NZ Police, Opotiki District Council, Bay of Plenty Regional Council, Te Puni Kokiri, Industries and other Agencies in their iwi response to COVID-19.