TŪ MAI TAONGA WELCOMES NEW FUNDING FROM PREDATOR FREE 2050 LTD

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Tū Mai Taonga, an indigenous led conservation project on Aotea, Great Barrier Island,

has been granted additional funding from Predator Free 2050 Limited.

It is one of five predator free conservation projects chosen in the latest round of

PF2050 Limited funding and will receive $1.9m over a three-year period.

The initiative, which involves removing rodents, and one of the world’s largest-ever feral

cat eradications on an inhabited island, is unique in its mana whenua led approach,

spearheaded by Ngāti Rehua-Ngātiwai ki Aotea. It is underpinned by Te Ao Māori

principles that connect people and place.

“We welcome this new funding and acknowledge in these difficult times how important

it is for us to deliver the very best we can – to help achieve Aotearoa’s moonshot goal of

becoming Predator Free by 2050,” says Tū Mai Taonga project lead Makere Jenner.

“We are restoring our place, Aotea, Great Barrier Island through science and tikanga

(traditional based) conservation,” she says.

“And at the same time, we are restoring our people, giving them the opportunity to

return home to work and uplifting our whānau to regain the things we have lost – our

language, or culture and economic sustainability.”

Predator Free 2050 Limited CEO Rob Forlong says additional funding for the Tū Mai Taonga Project will provide valuable insights to help achieve the predator free goal on the mainland.

“Being an iwi-led project the knowledge being harnessed by Tū Mai Taonga will not only be an invaluable tool for the mission but will ensure the principles of Te Tiriti are upheld.

"I'm excited to see our already strong partnership with the Aotea team grow, and I look forward to watching them thrive as guardians of the ngahere, restoring the land and returning what has been lost."

Makere says Tū Mai Taonga is also excited about developing the relationship with Predator Free 2050 Limited, and the opportunities it allows to expand the project into phase two, taking the learnings from the last three years and applying them to a larger scale on the Aotea mainland.

“We are seeing promising signs as a result of the mahi already carried out removing feral cats from the northern part of Aotea, and removing rodents from the outer Broken Islands,” she says.

“Our kaumatua are seeing trees and bushes flower that have never done so in their lifetime and the birdlife is slowly increasing too.

“This is the result of Aotea community groups and agencies undertaking more than twenty years of predator suppression, and then funders like the Predator Free 2050 Limited, The Department of Conservation, Auckland Council and Foundation North having belief in our mahi and methodology to back us, to help achieve our end goal where both people and place thrive.”