Iwi Ecosystem Services, with Ngāti Raukawa

Case Study 2: Ngāti Tukorehe case study

This case study, led by Dr Huhana Smith, builds on the Te Hākari wetland restoration project*.  The future viability of this wetland is now dependent upon preservation and restoration of surrounding natural ecosystems at the landscape scale – currently under threat from housing sub-division.  

Te Iwi o Ngāti Tukorehe Trust (TIONTT) have formed a project team of 13 people, and developed a project plan to map natural ecosystems and services values in a cultural landscape context with Research Leader for this case study, Dr Huhana Smith.  The team will build a landscape-scale GIS overlay to our existing ecosystem services GIS database, developed by Dr Golubiewski at NZCEE, and use this to write an ‘Action Plan’.  GPS equipment, a GIS computer workstation, training and GIS modelling/mapping support have been deployed to this project.  

This project aims to map cultural and natural landscape significance the ahi kaa roa within the coastal Kuku area, Horowhenua region. The team from Tukorehe who are involved in the NZCEE project is made up of key active participants from TIONTT environmental sub-committee and other supporters. They are keen to get out in the field and gather the data that will be included in this important visual database. The team are very excited by the potential of this proejct that aims to:

• Gather and spatially map the cultural landscape and ecological values of the case-study area to Ngāti Tukorehe;
• Identify and record sites/areas of significance to Ngāti Tukorehe, and their associated natural and cultural values;
• Develop Active Management and Protection Plans to integrate mapping information into local and regional planning and decision-making processes;
• Develop a conceptual model of drivers of change.

The practical benefits, once the Action Plan has been approved and implemented, are likely to be: (i) protection of the existing Te Hākari wetland from the effects of adjoining farmland and a planned sub-division; (ii) improved connectivity of existing wetlands, (iii) improved connectivity of forest remnants and (iv) riparian vegetation; (v) and the replanting of an adjacent exotic forest block with native trees once it is harvested.

On 19 November 2008, Horowhenua District Council signed a Memorandum of Partnership with Te Iwi o Ngāti Tukorehe Trust.

For more information about this case study, please contact the Case Study Leader: Dr Huhana Smith.

The applied research dimensions of this project build on the success of Te Iwi o Ngāti Tukorehe Trust in its Te Hākari Wetlands restoration project described by PhD candidate, Huhana Smith as follows: “The current research effort at Kuku explores the revitalisation of the ecological, cultural and spiritual values of Te Hākari Dune Wetland as part of the wider Pekapeka contiguous wetland system, within the wider coastal environment between the Ōhau to Waikawa Rivers” … “As a hapū and iwi led initiative over time, key representatives have read ‘cultural landscape’ and offered their mätauranga and knowledge according to a local, cultural and spiritual dimension, related to a wider ecological and environmental perspective and imperative for mitigating decline in ecological and environmental health. In doing so, elders have offered a dimension that assists the wider iwi and hapū to reclaim a sense of ownership over cultural and environmental heritage decisions, to ensure positive outcomes with mutually beneficial outcomes for the wider community. Therefore, iwi and hapū have played a vital and practical role as kaitaiki or guardians to determine positive and healthy futures for tribal regions (Smith, 2005).”

The Te Hākari project has demonstrated in practical terms that hapū can take ownership of ecosystem restoration projects (Wehipeihana-Wilson et al., 2005). Te Roopu will draw upon and use this Mātauranga Māori to establish the Kaupapa for the restoration case studies. The other parts of this proposal build on what has been accomplished at Te Hākari by: (i) developing better understanding of the direct and indirect causes of natural ecosystem degradation and (ii) how these can be effectively addressed at local, catchment and landscape levels of ecological scale.