Saving te Raukūmara

Saving te Raukūmara can only be a collective effort and movement that requires all segments of society to contribute. We will work with our Te Tiriti partner and those who support and understand the role we must fulfil in leading the restoration of the place we call home.

We are fortunate that we have so many experts in our ranks. Holders of mātauranga-a-taiao (Indigneous environmental knowledge), and kaitiaki (environmental experts) experienced in pest control and biodiversity. We also have so many of our own willing to learn, understand and grow their skills so they can play their part.

We have a wealth of friends across te motu and te ao with expertise to awhi and tautoko our mahi. This is an intergenerational kaupapa as we grow our expertise, leadership, understanding and capacity to work in partnership with like-minded experts and share the story of te Raukūmara, its people and recovery.

Raukūmara Pae Maunga objectives:

1. RESTORE: Habitat Recovery

Support inter-agency control of goats within public conservation lands.
Achieve a long-term goal of zero goats within public conservation lands.
Reduce the level of deer within public conservation lands to a level that permits understory recovery.
Monitor understory recovery across habitats within the Raukūmara.
Reduce the level of possums to below five per cent across public conservation land and the partnering owners' land.
Monitor canopy recovery across habitats within the Raukūmara.
Plan, establish and maintain at least two intensively managed restoration sites.
Utilise mātauranga Māori and conventional conservation and scientific understandings and practices in all aspects of the project work, for example taiao and/or biodiversity monitoring.

2. PROTECT: Predator Control

Reduce and maintain rat and mustelid populations to low levels across public conservation lands and intensively managed sites.
Monitor rat and mustelid populations and their impacts on key native species.

3. RECOVER: Ecological and Species Recovery

Initiate the recovery of habitats, threatened species populations and improve ecological functions through landscape-scale, multi-species pest control.
Undertake holistic, mātauranga-grounded monitoring of species, habitats and the wider ngahere.
Utilise insight from monitoring to inform operational decision-making.

4. RESILIENCE: Connected, healthy, strong kaitiaki and communities

By initiating and demonstrating landscape-scale ecological and environmental improvements across the Raukūmara forest, significant cultural, social and economic benefits will occur, such as:

local job creation
experiential learning opportunities for kura and communities
strengthening pathways to work
providing culturally-grounded kaitiaki opportunities for iwi members
the chance to reconnect to the Raukūmara in a variety of meaningful ways.

Together, these threads reconnect us to the Raukūmara and support our kaitiaki and communities to be resilient and healthy.