Raukūmara Pae Maunga is helping to protect some of the biggest native forest from mountain to sea in the North Island. Photo: Supplied
Raukūmara Conservation Park was said to be dying - over run with deer, possums and goats - when iwi raised the urgent need for action more than 10 years ago. Years later, that led to the formation of the iwi-led conservation partnership project, Raukūmara Pae Maunga, which aims to restore the biodiversity of the forest in the East Cape's Raukūmara range.
Initially funded by Jobs for Nature, the project has now received from government $6 million dollars over the next three years, but will need to raise further funds as it costs that amount each year. Raukūmara Pae Maunga Governor, Ora Barlow, has described the conservation project as one of Aotearoa's most ambitious ecological restoration programmes, that at the same time creates jobs.
