Kōtuku Award for Raukūmara Pae Maunga

In August Forest & Bird presented the Kōtuku Award to Raukūmara Pae Maunga Restoration Project for our ambitious project to control pest animals and plants and restore over 150,000ha of the Raukūmara Range.

Ora Barlow-Tukaki of Te Whānau-ā-Apanui said there was a passion among the people to understand what was happening to the ngahere so it could be healed.

“When you hear that ultimate truth, you have to act in a courageous way,” Ora said.

Forest & Bird deputy president Kate Graeme said Te Raukūmara Pae Maunga had put enormous time and effort into communicating the problems with their hapū and communities and working to secure government funding.

“Te Raukūmara Pae Maunga has been exceptional in communicating the implications of introduced pests on the vulnerable native forest, problem solving and rallying support to control the introduced invasive species,” Kate said.

“All the people who fall within the cloak of Te Raukūmara Pae Maunga are environmental warriors and should be recognised and celebrated for their work that has begun to restore the mauri and mana of Te Raukūmara ngahere.”

Ngā mihi nui - thank you to EVERYONE who has been involved - from inception through to where we are today. There has been so much mahi to get us to this stage and we are so grateful to you all and to have our ambitions, tenacity and dedication to this kaupapa recognised.