Our Changing World: Iwi-led conservation in the Kaimai Mamaku ranges

Mohi Korohina at Killarney Lakes. Photo / RNZ

By Dr Claire Concannon of RNZ

It was during the Covid-19 pandemic and Mohi Korohina was working in Australia when he got the call. It was his grandfather – “no good staying in Aussie”, he said, “Come home. There’s a job here and you can help our people.”

Returning to reconnect with whenua and whānau, Mohi became team leader for Ngāti Hinerangi’s new conservation project – Wairere Mahi.

Wairere Mahi

The Wairere Falls carpark at the base of the Kaimai Mamaku ranges is just a short drive out of Matamata. The walk to the waterfall viewing platform is normally a busy one. The falls, which can be seen from the road, are a spectacular sight even at a distance. However, the track has been closed since July 2025 because of safety concerns.

Wairere Falls is a special place to Ngāti Hinerangi and neighbouring iwi. A pathway beside the waterfall was once a vital connection between Waikato and Tauranga iwi, who traded harakeke (flax) for kaimoana (seafood). Part of the Wairere Scenic Reserve was returned to Ngāti Hinerangi in their 2021 Treaty of Waitangi settlement, and it’s here that Wairere Mahi began their pest trapping work.

First though, was the R&D, says Mohi. He was previously a farmer and some members of the team had hunting backgrounds, but the skills of trapping and using locator technology to stay safe in the bush were new, he says.

A 40ha area at the base of the falls was the testing ground. Once those trap lines were established, the team set their sights on a larger area at the top of the ranges.

The original plan was to move up and trap across the top of the falls but the mountain and hut locations dictated a change of plan, says Mohi.

“We came up with a new plan that we would go over to Te Tuhi and put in a thousand hectares over there.”

The Wairere Falls scenic reserve. Photo / RNZ, Claire Concannon

Alongside this trapping work, Mohi is running a project to restore two small nearby lakes in an area also returned to the iwi. The goal is to remove the weeds and replant natives, with a focus on those plants important for rongoā Māori, says Mohi.

“My personal idea for this area is that it becomes a hub for healing, that we can bring our kaumātua, that we can bring our aunties and our uncles out here.”

But ambitious goals need long-term resourcing. The Killarney Lakes project is currently being supported in part by Matariki Forests, which owns the forestry surrounding the lakes, Wai Connections funding administered through GoEco, and support from umbrella organisation Manaaki Kaimai Mamaku Trust. Some of this is only short term.

Funding for Wairere Mahi originally came from the iwi capability fund, a pot of Jobs for Nature money, set aside for hapū and iwi to build capability in the conservation space. At the height of the trapping project it employed nine workers. Now it’s just Mohi.

The future of nature funding?

It’s not an unusual tale for a Jobs for Nature-funded project. This pandemic-era $1.2 billion fund ran from July 2020 to the end of June 2025.

While many projects finished once the money dried up, some have managed to source funding from elsewhere to continue, and Manaaki Kaimai Mamaku Trust chief executive Louise Saunders hopes that will be their future too.

The co-governed charitable trust was set up in 2019, built on the back of 10 years of community concern about the state of the Kaimai Mamaku ranges. When Jobs for Nature came on the scene, the trust was allocated $19.4 million from the iwi capability portion to work with iwi and hapū throughout the area to develop business cases for their own individual projects, and subsequently support them.

At the height of the funding there were 12 projects. Now there are eight. They are spread across the Kaimai Mamaku ranges, across different ecosystems, and with each iwi or hapū having their own goals – pest animal control, weed removal, native planting and monitoring certain taonga species. The trust’s support is specific to whatever the project needs, whether that is help with budgeting, report writing, health and safety systems or different technical aspects.

“You name it, we’ve done it,” says Louise, “because each project entity is independent ... it’s its own individual entity. And by building their capability, we’re building their resilience for the long term as an organisation.”

The trust has enough money to keep the lights on until the last quarter of this year, and is applying to local council and philanthropic funds for the next few years. But looking to the future, Louise sees an opportunity in enabling businesses to contribute to nature funding.

“Whether [it’s] because they want to support a local project or because they have a brand image or reputational reason … or because they need to be reporting on the nature risk or nature impact … or because there are trade restrictions … There’s all sorts of reasons why businesses are considering what their position on nature is right now.”

In June 2025, the Government announced it was investigating the expansion of a voluntary nature credit market by supporting nine pilot projects across New Zealand and Manaaki Kaimai Mamaku Trust is involved in one of them. Boffa Miskell is working with the trust to see if they can adapt an international framework for use in New Zealand landscapes.

With an umbrella organisation supporting eight projects, and each project team with their own goals and methods, working across varied land types and tenures, there’s a lot going on. But Louise sees the complexity of their system as an advantage for the pilot.

“If it’s going to fail, it’s going to fail here. But if we succeed, then it makes the market accessible to anybody wanting to participate.”

– RNZ