Nga Whenua Rahui is a contestable fund established in 1990 to negotiate the voluntary protection of native forest on Maori-owned land. Five years ago, the scope of the Fund was expanded to include other indigenous ecosystems on Maori land.

An independent committee that reports directly to the Minister of Conservation administers the fund, which is serviced by the Department of Conservation.

Nga Whenua Rahui provides a unique opportunity to apply Maori conservation values in their own right and not purely as the cultural values component of a broader conservation strategy. Legal protection is offered through kawenata (covenants), setting aside areas as Maori reservations or through management agreements.

In the first two years of NZBS funding, Nga Whenua Rahui has utilised the funding allocated to undertake a national pest management programme on areas already formally protected by the fund through kawenata or management agreements. This programme is being carried out on four large blocks of land.

One of these projects is a mainland island initiative on Maori-owned land at Omaio, Bay of Plenty. This involves an intensive pest management and restoration programme on a core area of 1390 hectares. The objectives are:

• to reduce possum, stoat and rat populations to sufficiently low levels to allow the recovery of indigenous ecosystems.
• to provide an example of a functioning ecosystem, representative of native forest on Maori-owned land.
• to provide opportunities for tangata whenua to gain knowledge and skills in pest animal control and forest ecosystem restoration.

This project is the only known project of this size involving the establishment of an ecosystem restoration project on Maori-owned land where a majority of the work is undertaken by tangata whenua.

All pest management work is undertaken on performance based contracts in accordance wtih national standards established by the Department of Conservation.

The Nga Whenua Rahui fund has continued to expand and modify to meet demand by Maori landowners and communities to protect habitats and ecosystems and to maintain the condition of protected areas through fencing and pest management.

You'll find more information about Nga Whenua Rahui on the DOC website.