Whakatāne-Ōhope Environmental Programme

Toi Moana Bay of Plenty Regional Council, alongside project partners, are working to restore and enhance environmentally significant areas in the Whakatāne District. 

The Whakatāne-Ōhope Environmental Programme is a partnership with Regional Council, Te Runanga o Ngati Awa, Te Tapatoru ā Toi, Ngāti Awa Group Holdings Ltd, Ngāti Hokopu and Ngāti Wharepaia, the Department of Conservation, Whakatāne District Council, Whakatāne Kiwi Trust, and the Dodds family, and outlines a programme of work to tackle pest plant and animal numbers at five key sites around the district.

 The sites in the programme form a broken sequence of indigenous forest corridor that extends from the coast inland to Te Urewera. The sites also form the core area for the Whakatāne Kiwi Project.

These sites are home to several threatened and at-risk flora and fauna, such as kārearea (New Zealand falcon), long tailed bat, dwarf mistletoe and New Zealand spurge. After years of intensive restoration and predator control, the regenerating forest and birdlife at these sites are beginning to thrive.

Project history

While the environmental programme was initially established in 2011 (the Whakatāne-Ōhope Biodiversity Management Plan 2011-2016), this built on an already established pest animal control work that was undertaken through a joint Memorandum of Understanding between Regional Council and the Department of Conservation since 2005.

Over time, the programme has been further expanded. More partners have signed onto the agreement, programmes of work have been updated to be more effective, the kiwi population has been reestablished, there is evidence of forest regeneration and the work area has increased. In 2023 the project partners agreed to a five-year extension.

The success of this programme and its extension signals the collective commitment of the partners to restore biodiversity in the Whakatāne District.

Why are we doing this?

The sites included in this programme is made up of public reserves, private land protected by QEII covenants and Nga Whenua Rāhui kawenata. They consist of pōhutukawa forest, broadleaved tawa dominant forest, and coastal scrub, but also contain several small wetland areas in valley floors. 

These sites have been identified by Regional Council and the Department of Conservation as Priority Biodiversity Sites  (non-statutory) and by Whakatāne District Council as Significant Indigenous Biodiversity   Sites (statutory). Protection of these sites is critical to ensuring we do not lose our native biodiversity. 

On top of the ecological significance that these sites hold, they also hold great cultural significance to Ngāti Hokopu and Ngāti Wharepaia (mana whenua) and Ngāti Awa (iwi).

Ngāti Hokopū and Ngāti Wharepaia share the custodial responsibilities of kaitiakitanga in the area from Te Mānuka Tūtahi, Ōhope and to Ōhiwa Harbour. They carry this responsibility through whakapapa and through the long-standing connection to the landscapes defined within the Whakatāne and Ōhope Environmental Programme. 

For Ngāti Awa, land is a taonga tuku iho, a treasure handed down from generation to generation that should be nurtured. The lands over which the programme operates are the ancestral lands of Ngāti Awa and Ngāti Awa are tangata whenua and kaitiaki who hold mana whenua over all the area included in this environmental programme. 

Key activities currently underway 

Pest control

Pest animals threaten biodiversity values directly through predation and consumption of fruits, seeds, and leaves, and indirectly through competition for food and other resources. Pest mammals known to be present at the programme sites include possums, rodents, mustelids, ungulates, pigs, feral cats, deer, goats, rabbits and hares, hedgehogs and wasps.

Work is currently underway to reduce pest animals through a number of control methods, including baiting, fencing and live trapping. 

Pest plants exclude native plants from various habitats and kill some species by overtopping and shading. Priority species for control include woolly nightshade, wild ginger, wild kiwifruit, climbing asparagus, wilding pines, lantana, and Taiwan cherry.
Besides controlling priority species, it is important to prevent establishment of new pest plant species through biosecurity measures and by eradicating small infestations while it is cost effective and feasible.

Monitoring

Monitoring pest plant and animal numbers is essential to confirming whether management actions are effective at reducing threats. Both result and outcome monitoring methods are used to assess this. 
Result monitoring uses wax tags, tracking tunnels, camera traps, and plant surveys to track a reduction in the number of pests. 

Outcome monitoring helps us know if an objective has been met. This includes counting kiwi calls which helps us know if kiwi is thriving due to a reduction of pests.