A Waikato ecological corridor project is underway following a funding announcement made by Environment Minister David Parker.
The Maungatautari to Pirongia Ecological Corridor Project will be led by the NZ Landcare Trust and will create an ecological connection between the waterways which flow from Maungatautari to Mount Pirongia. An ecological corridor reconnecting these areas will be created through biodiversity plantings, which will enhance native biodiversity and numbers, transform iwi connections to the awa (water), and improve water quality.
Ministry for the Environment is funding the project to the total of $800,000 – with some of those funds used to fund roles for those working on the project.
The grant is from the from the Ministry’s Freshwater Improvement Fund, which is part of the Government’s wider Jobs for Nature programme – with the corridor project just one of 19 new projects gaining funding nationally.
NZ Landcare Trust Waikato Regional Coordinator Nardene Berry is excited about the new project and thankful for the funding from the ministry.
“The Maungatautari to Pirongia Ecological Corridor Project will bring together extensive restoration work already being done in the area by the likes of individual landowners, care groups, Iwi, Council and other agencies to improve and enhance riparian margins, create wetland habitat and reduce predators and increase biodiversity.”
“This project is already powerfully collaborative, and it will be exciting to be working at a large scale as it will allow a more coordinated effort to ensure positive and long reaching benefits to the environment between, and including, the two maunga.”