June 15, 2022
Tamanuhiri teams up with council for native forest conversion
Gisborne District Council has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Ngai Tāmanuhiri’s Maraetaha Incorporation covering the transition of a 1400 hectare pine plantation to indigenous forest.
The land at Waingake surrounds the water dams, pipes and the treatment plant where the majority of Tairāwhiti’s city water supply comes from.
Gisborne District Council purchased the land from iwi in 1991 and entered into a joint forestry agreement to establish a plantation pine forest, which is now being harvested.
Maraetaha chair Bella Hawkins says the iwi and the council are working together for the future of the whenua and the whanau.
Funding for 925,000 native trees was granted last year and a quarter of the trees are already in the ground.
Tairawhiti has only 7 per cent of its original native bush cover.