2024 Impact Report : simplebooklet.com

2024 IMPACT REPORT | Tū Mai Taonga | 3Tū Mai Taonga, restoring people and place on Aotea, Great Barrier IslandTū Mai Taonga is a Māori led conservation project on Aotea, Great Barrier Island. It is unique in its indigenous Ngāti Rehua Ngātiwai ki Aotea led approach — underpinned by Te ao Māori principles that connect people and place. The project involves removing rodents, and is one of the world’s largest-ever feral cat eradications on an inhabited island. It is part of Aotearoa New Zealand’s wider goal to be Predator Free by 2050. As well as Tū Mai Taonga giving the people of Aotea the opportunity to return home to work to restore the island, through science and tikanga (traditional) based conservation — it is also building and uplifting its whānau to regain the things it has lost; the language, culture and economic sustainability — as well as the health of its environment. By expanding its mātauranga (Māori knowledge) and working together to regain these lost things, it sets a course for generational change for its mokopuna (grandchildren). And ultimately Tū Mai Taonga can achieve its end goal — where both people and place thrive.Left: Tākapu / Australasian gannet colony on Māhuki Island which is ﬂourishing as a result of the rodent removal. D Shaun Lee.Front cover: Kaumātua Opo Ngawaka, former Chair of the Ngāti Rehua Ngātiwai ki Aotea Trust, is witnessing restoration on the Broken Islands off Aotea, Great Barrier Island that he has never seen before in his lifetime. Read his story on Page 30.

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Ngā mihi to our funders and supportersTū Mai Taonga acknowledges the generosity of its funders which are allowing this once in a generation opportunity to restore people and place. We appreciate the continued support of our foundation sponsor, the Department of Conservation’s Jobs for Nature, Mahi mō te Taiao programme, Auckland Council, Predator Free 2050 Limited, all our community volunteers, and Aotea community members who support our vision.We also welcome a new funder, the community trust Foundation North. Audry McLaren, Head of Funding at Foundation North, says:“This project is more than environmental; it holistically addresses and elevates environment, language, and culture, supporting Ngāti Rehua-Ngātiwai ki Aotea as kaitiaki of Aotea. It enhances partnerships between Mana Whenua and regional stakeholders, embedding Tino Rangatiratanga and Te Āo Māori. Along with a ﬂourishing ecosystem with immense biodiversity, the initiative will create long-term jobs and training opportunities.”SUPPORTERSAotea Conservation Park Advisory CommitteeAotea Great Barrier Environmental TrustAotea Trap LibraryEcology Vision — Aotea Great Barrier IslandGlenfern SanctuaryKawa MaraeKōtuku Peninsula TrustMotairehe MaraeMotu Kaikoura TrustOkiwi Community Ecology ProjectOruawharo Medlands EcovisionWindy Hill SanctuaryFUNDERS

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Rakitū (predator free 2020)Objective: To remove feral cats and rodents from Aotea informed by the tikanga of Ngāti Rehua Ngātiwai ki Aotea.Phase 1 — Establish• Empower mana whenua to lead conservation at a landscape scale• Build an island conservation workforce• Proof of concept for eradication of feral cats and rodentsPhase 2 — Ramp-up• Build capacity and capability• Reﬁne tools and methodology• Build reputation of successPhase 3 — Extend• Build informed landowner relationships• Integrate for joined-up eradication• Build sustainable income modelPhase 4 — Protect• Reﬁne biosecurity to maintain an island ark• Predator free Aotea is a point of island pride• Mokopuna hear the birdsong their tūpuna once did and people and taiāo/nature thrive togetherPathway to eradication

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2024 IMPACT REPORT | Tū Mai Taonga | 7Rakitū (predator free 2020)Objective: To remove feral cats and rodents from Aotea informed by the tikanga of Ngāti Rehua Ngātiwai ki Aotea.Phase 1 — Establish• Empower mana whenua to lead conservation at a landscape scale• Build an island conservation workforce• Proof of concept for eradication of feral cats and rodentsPhase 2 — Ramp-up• Build capacity and capability• Reﬁne tools and methodology• Build reputation of successPhase 3 — Extend• Build informed landowner relationships• Integrate for joined-up eradication• Build sustainable income modelPhase 4 — Protect• Reﬁne biosecurity to maintain an island ark• Predator free Aotea is a point of island pride• Mokopuna hear the birdsong their tūpuna once did and people and taiāo/nature thrive togetherThe evolution of Tū Mai Taonga2000 Coordinated community trapping begins.2020 Initial project development encouraged by Aotea Conservation Park Advisory Committee and developed by Aotea Great Barrier Environmental Trust, with support from island sanctuaries and community groups.Community research reveals high level of support for the project, interim steering committee established.2021 Tū Mai Taonga secures funding from Predator Free 2050 Limited, the Department of Conservation’s Jobs for Nature fund, Mahi mō te Taiao and Auckland Council, allowing it to transition from an interim project to a fully-ﬂedged initiative and is taken in under the leadership of the Ngāti Rehua Ngātiwai ki Aotea Trust.2022 A feasibility study identiﬁes a pathway to eradication. First ﬁeld team recruits start work in the Te Paparahi area.2023 The project is fully operational with teams removing feral cats from Te Paparahi and rodents from the Broken Islands, contracting around 30 people.2024 Phase one of feral cat removal from Te Paparahi region and rodent removal from the Broken Islands largely completed — learnings from these operations will be applied to the next phase, moving south on mainland Aotea.

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Ki te whaiao, ki te Ao Mārama, Tihei mauri ora!To the dawnlight, to the world of light, the breath, the energy of life!On behalf of the Ngāti Rehua — Ngātiwai ki Aotea Trust Board, we celebrate the ﬁrst three years of Ngāti Rehua’s largest ever project, Tū Mai Taonga. I want to acknowledge our Ngāti Rehua ancestors who discovered Aotea, settled the island and left a legacy of kaitiakitanga that our people have continued for the past 800 years.We are the mana whenua of Aotea, but our geographical isolation has been challenging. The lack of jobs and housing has meant our whānau have had to move away to work and live, creating a disconnect between te Iwi o Ngāti Rehua and Aotea.Ngāti Rehua through the Tū Mai Taonga Project is providing jobs, allowing our people to return home to work and to live. It’s allowing our whānau to express their kaitiakitanga (guardianship) for Aotea, protect the ngahere and reconnect with their culture.Ngā mihi nui to the volunteers, community groups and funders who are the believers and supporters of Ngāti Rehua including the Department of Conservation, Predator Free 2050 Limited, Auckland Council and Foundation North.Full credit goes to our Tū Mai Taonga governance and operations teams, who are applying Te Ao Maori principles that connect people and place to conservation, Seeds of restoration— Fletcher Beazley, Chair of the Ngāti Rehua — Ngātiwai ki Aotea Trust BoardTākapu / Australasian gannet at sunset off Rangiahua Island D Shaun Lee.

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2024 IMPACT REPORT | Tū Mai Taonga | 9and who are honouring our unique Ngāti Rehua tikanga. Our team has been on the ground doing the mahi in some of the most challenging terrain in Aotearoa New Zealand.Big wins so far include the restoration of our ngahere on Rangiahua and Māhuki where rodents are nearly all removed and in Te Paparahi we have made major gains in the removal of feral cats. We are beginning to see and hear the seeds of restoration with the sound of our birds returning to places that have been silent for years! These results have meant that for Phase 2 of the project we can now expand our operation from the North to the Centre of Aotea. Like a seed these successes will grow, it will take time to heal our wahi tapu, but the journey has begun!Rehua ki te Rangi!, Rehua ki te Motu!,Rehua ki te Wai!, Rehua ki te Iwi!Toi Tū Aotea!, Toi Tū te Iwi o Ngāti Rehua e!— Fletcher Beazley, Chair of the Ngāti Rehua — Ngātiwai ki Aotea Trust Board

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As we have navigated the highs and lows of restoring our people and place on Aotea Great Barrier Island, the ﬁrst three years of the Tū Mai Taonga project have been both challenging and exciting. We’ve all grappled with the complexities, and then marvelled at how our people have grown. We’ve cursed and enhanced our tools and techniques and then celebrated improving their effectiveness. We have stood in awe of other predator-free projects that were “getting it right” and slowly built conﬁdence as we got things right, too. Our failures show that we tried. Our wins show that we don’t give up. If we maintain the resilience that got us through the difﬁcult start-up phase of the project, then we have a real shot at making a way for people and taiao (environment) to thrive again together on Aotea. Now, with new funding to move us into the next phase, we are pivoting from start-up to ramp-up. We will apply what we’ve learned to move through the stages of feral cat eradication more efﬁciently and develop a pathway to rodent eradication. We’re also taking a more serious approach to restoring our people’s connection to te ao Māori, rebuilding our conﬁdence to take care of our taiao and people in a way that celebrates our history, honours our tikanga and ancestors, and strengthens our connection to the land and to each other.Start up to ramp up— Makere Jenner, Tū Mai Taonga Project Lead

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2024 IMPACT REPORT | Tū Mai Taonga | 11The project’s goals are aspirational, far-fetched even. But anyone who says it can’t be done is missing the point. We’re trying to achieve a world-ﬁrst in making Aotea predator free. For an inhabited island this big, it hasn’t been done — yet. What seemed hard a year or two ago is now māmā — easy. As we continue to develop our knowledge and capacity, and take on new challenges with humility and courage, the things that seem hard today will be māmā tomorrow.I wish I could end with a whakataukī (proverb) from Aotea but I don’t know any. Yet. So I’ll borrow a childhood favourite from Tūhoe, an iwi that embraced that spirit of ambition and possibility to turn Te Urewera National Park into its own legal entity and protected area.Iti rearea teitei kahikatea ka tāea — even the small rearea can ﬂy to the top of the kahikatea.— Makere Jenner, Project Lead, Tū Mai Taonga

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Tū Mai Taonga’s ambitious goal is to remove all feral cats from Aotea Great Barrier Island. Once successful, it will be the world’s largest eradication of feral cats on an inhabited island. Feral cats are the apex predators on Aotea. With no stoats or possums on the island, they are the biggest threat to native birds, reptiles and insects. “A feral cat’s appetite can be insatiable,” says the Operations Manager in charge of the feral cat eradication Chris Giblin. “Left uncontrolled, they have decimated the bird population on Aotea, and destroyed reptiles and amphibian populations too, like lizards and frogs. Their hunting capability is enormous.” The Tū Mai Taonga team has been working on the ﬁrst of a ﬁve stage, feral cat removal programme. Zone one is in the northern part of the island, a 4560 hectare block, Te Paparahi, which is largely uninhabited. The team has cut tracks in dense bush, developed a grid in this area and deployed remotely monitored traps. From his ofﬁce in Akapoua, Chris can monitor the traps in real time. The team also has a large trail camera network to monitor progress throughout the project. “This technology saves us a lot of manpower, but we still manually service the traps twice a week to refresh the lure and respond to any triggers daily. Legally, triggered traps must be checked within 12 hours of sunrise.” Chris Giblin, Feral Cats Operations Manager, whose team is preparing to take the learnings to phase two of the project. Feral cat eradication Te Paparahi

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2024 IMPACT REPORT | Tū Mai Taonga | 13During 2024 most of the feral cats have been removed in zone one, with a small number still to be mopped up. The team is using the camera data to estimate the amount remaining and honing their skills in leg trapping techniques. “In our ﬁrst knock down stage we were largely cage trapping,” says Chris.“Now we are in the mopping up phase we are targeting the harder to catch feral cats — the cunning ones. We are trying to outsmart them by identifying their locations and movements through our trail cameras, and then burying leg traps in those areas lightly under some growth. We are experiencing some success with this, which is encouraging.” Feral cats, the team has discovered, are human-like in their traversing of the environment — they like to walk along ridgelines, fence lines and tracks and tend to stay on the easiest dry part of the track. That has helped dictate where the traps are positioned. Chris’s team has also learned that feral cats’ favourite bait is rabbit, chicken and ﬁsh but are starting trials on alternate long life lures. The team will take its learnings southward into tackling zone two in 2025.This is the challenging part of the plan — as it is populated with more humans, and with them, their domestic cats. Prior to the feral cat removal programme in Te Paparahi, the area was known for its silence, Chris says, because most of the birdlife had been eaten by the feral cats and rodents.“Anecdotally, we are hearing the birdsong gradually come back,” says Chris. “We are seeing very few feral cats on our monitoring cameras and we are hearing more kakariki and bellbirds,” he says. “The bird calls are what success sounds like to us — and we are looking forward to moving to a new phase, and the birdsong in Te Paparahi growing louder in the future.”Feral cat with Ōi / Grey-faced petrel.Tākoketai / Black petrel landing near cat trap.

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Success in eliminating rats from most of the outer islands of Aotea (Great Barrier Island), the Broken Islands, has been a major milestone for Tū Mai Taonga in 2024.“We are on target for phase one and have gained valuable insights over the past year which will help determine the pathway for phase two of the project, when we progress to the Aotea mainland” says Rylie Arnell, who is leading this aspect of the initiative.Rats pose a substantial threat to the local ecosystem, preying on birds eggs, insects, and impact the bush by consuming a large number of regenerating seeds.After eradicating rats and following up with extensive monitoring, the project removed all toxic bait from Rangiahua Island in June 2024, after a successful trial using a ﬁrst-generation rodenticide. Since then, the island has been operating under a robust biosecurity network.The team has been successful in eliminating rats from Little Māhuki, and has managed to keep the rodent populations on Māhuki at an all time low.“We have managed to isolate the remaining pockets of rats on Māhuki and know exactly where we need to target next. “They are near zero, but the access is challenging, and we are monitoring them closely.” This progress has been particularly rewarding for the one family living on Māhuki Island, who have observed trees and fruit ﬂowering for the ﬁrst time in years.The initiative has also had a positive impact on the island’s lizard population.Rylie Arnell, Rodent Operations Manager is building a predator-free workforce in some of the most challenging terrain in Aotearoa, New Zealand.Rodent removal, Broken Islands

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2024 IMPACT REPORT | Tū Mai Taonga | 15Rangiahua Island D Shaun Lee.The team has been trialing different lures, learning about habits and preferences of the rodents, which will help inform the approach to the next phase of the rodent removal, on mainland Aotea. “Rats, like people, are looking for a balanced diet. Unfortunately, there is no ‘perfect lure’. It all depends on factors like time of year, weather, and food availability. “If their diet consists of heavy protein foods, such as insects, sea food and eggs, — we have experimented with using a sweeter supplement like licorice or chocolate. If they are eating berries or seedlings they prefer a protein based food — like peanut butter.” One of the success stories has been building a workforce — a role which is one of the most challenging ﬁeld positions in Aotearoa New Zealand’s predator free movement. “Many of them are now fully trained in the mechanisms of feral cat and rodent removal. We are extremely proud of them and their achievements.” “Building a comprehensive grid system of traps has been incredibly challenging for our ﬁeld crew,” Rylie says. “Carrying 8-10 wooden bait stations through thick gorse, up cliffs, while navigating wasp nests and constant bending, is no easy task. These conditions are extremely tough.”“It’s all about scale now,” says Rylie. “We are pumped about our achievements and learnings so far and can’t wait to apply that knowledge to greater Aotea.”

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Hiku Davis can walk alone up to 20 kilometres a day through thick bush in some of the harshest, most isolated and historically signiﬁcant landscapes in Aotea, Great Barrier Island.And he wouldn’t swap his job for anything else.Hiku is the Wāhi Tapu (sacred site) advisor for Tū Mai Taonga. This makes him the eyes and ears of the iwi and a guide for the ﬁeld crew. He teaches the team and protects areas and artifacts of cultural signiﬁcance on Aotea.This honours the project’s commitment to delivering a conservation programme based on tikanga Māori (traditional values), which helps trappers be more aware of the history of the whenua (land) they are helping to heal. Working this way helps restore the cultural identity of Ngāti Rehua-Ngātiwai ki Aotea.Hiku Davis, Wāhi Tapu (sacred site) advisor, Team Lead and the eyes and ears of the iwi.Protecting our past

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2024 IMPACT REPORT | Tū Mai Taonga | 21“I walk through the dense bush where predator trapping lines are planned, making sure none of them traverse historic Māori sites,” he explains. “It’s challenging work.“The terrain is unforgiving in places, the weather is unpredictable and I am constantly moving. But I feel proud to be chosen to do this. It is a real privilege to have this role — it means a lot being Ngāti Rehua-Ngātiwai ki Aotea myself.”As one of the foundation members of the Tū Mai Taonga team, Hiku’s sense for the sacred sites has grown with the project over the past three years.“I can tell from a series of holes on a ridge line that it’s a former kūmara pit. I come across fortiﬁed pā sites, midden sites, broken adzes, obsidian ﬂakes — sharp stones used for preparing ﬁsh.“My role is to not disturb it, not even document it, but to just leave it all there and make sure our trappers work around these sacred areas. Our iwi wants to preserve this taonga (treasure). It means the history of our ancestors is respected and safe.”Hiku has always had a deep interest in the history of Aotea — the who, what, where, when, and why of the island.“I have learned that [in] the northern part of Aotea, Te Paparahi, where we are currently working, the iwi was quite nomadic, constantly moving around, living off the environment. They would grow kūmara and then move to another spot to harvest birds or catch crayﬁsh. At the same time, they would be protecting their land from other tribes too.”Hiku has grown up on stories passed down through generations and now his job is to help ensure this history is preserved for future generations.“I am so proud to be doing this and to be part of the Tū Mai Taonga team,” he says. “ To understand the past helps us understand the present better.”“Our Wāhi Tapu connect us to our whenua, our land. Our land holds and tells our stories. Our stories are our identity.”

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The call of Tū Mai Taonga has brought Niki Wii home.As Ngāti Rehua-Ngātiwai ki Aotea, Niki has always wanted to return permanently to his spiritual home on Aotea Great Barrier Island and a job at Tū Mai Taonga has been his ticket to make that happen.Niki is one of around 30 contractors engaged by the project. Part of Tū Mai Taonga’s vision is to restore people as well as place — providing jobs, restoring culture, and building economic sustainability.“I have always felt a strong connection with the land and sea,” says Niki.“And coming back home to an environment I’m very familiar with, to participate in restoring our bird life, ﬂora and fauna, and ocean is just humbling.”Niki Wii has returned to his spiritual home on Aotea, Great Barrier Island.Upskilling and coming home

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2024 IMPACT REPORT | Tū Mai Taonga | 23“At the moment I have joined the track cutting crew in Te Paparahi for the feral cat and rat trapping lines and plan to continue to upskill so I can cover a variety of ﬁeldwork within the project.”Like many who have grown up on Aotea, Niki previously found employment on the island limited. “If you wanted to work you just had to take what was around. Commercial ﬁshing, mussel farming, conservation work, track work, pest control, beekeeping, for example.”“Around four years ago I left for Tauranga to up skill and gain qualiﬁcations in something I loved doing — either around the bush or the ocean. “l decided to look into marine studies at University. The minimum requirement for this was to have a Divemaster qualiﬁcation.“After I qualiﬁed, I then decided to do a diploma in being a scuba and freediver instructor, and later advanced to training scuba instructors. Gaining all this experience, I am wanting to use it to upskill our own people here on Aotea, to have the expertise to open doors for job/business opportunities around marine conservation.”For Māori, it’s important to take care of the environment from land to sea. As a dive instructor, Niki has trained some of the Tū Mai Taonga trappers to dive; an important skillset in ocean conservation, while he expands his own experience trapping in the bush he has hunted in since he was young.“I remember a time when there was a lot of sounds of bird life. When I was young, pig hunting with my Uncles, we would have a rest waiting for the dogs to start bailing the pigs, and we would just sit there and listen to the birds,” he says.“The bush is quieter now. But with the mahi of the Tū Mai Taonga team, I’m hoping to hear the birdsong in my lifetime again.”Rescue diver training.

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2024 IMPACT REPORT | Tū Mai Taonga | 25New jobs skills put to the testOne of the successes of Tū Mai Taonga is upskilling its team — who are developing expertise in conservation to become some of the best trappers in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Collaboration is also part of the success story too — within the team itself, but also partnerships with iwi, funders, volunteers, other conservation groups and government agencies. It was humbling to put these new learnings into practice when an emergency situation emerged on Aotea late in 2024. Our team used the skills they had acquired hunting for feral cats and rodents — to join our friends in the New Zealand Police, Department of Conservation, LandSAR and the wider community in a search for a missing child. As well as a happy ending, this emergency has resulted in closer relationships with the Police and other agencies on the island. The Tū Mai Taonga ﬁeld crew joined a Police search for a missing child.

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Account Jan 2024-Dec 2024TMT - DoC JFN Funding 806,000TMT - PF2050 Funding 772,000TMT - Auckland Council Funding 941,685TMT - Other Revenue 1,786TMT - Foundation North 600,000TMT - In kind Co-funding Income (Book entry only) 1,009,172Total Income 4,130,643TMT - Admin, IT & Governance Work - Contractors 586,370TMT - Field Operations - Vehicle and Travel Costs 35,562TMT - Field Operations - Hireage & Rental Costs 106,053TMT - Field Operations - Other Misc Field Costs 39,475TMT - Field Operations - Supplies & Materials 33,175TMT - Field Work - Contractors 1,056,274TMT - Other Personnel costs 13,346TMT - Personnel protective equipment & uniforms 16,139TMT - Training 44,463TMT - In kind Co-funding Expense (Book entry only) 1,009,172Total Operational Costs 2,940,029Gross Surplus 1,190,614TMT - Interest Income 2Total Other Income 2TMT - Exchange rate variation 53TMT - NRNWKA Trust Overheads 13,015TMT - Provision for Audit 13,125TMT - Provision for Financial Statement preparation 2,625TMT - Accounting 5,863TMT - Bank Fees 434TMT - Communications & Engagement Expenses 31,499TMT - Entertainment 2,003TMT - Freight & Courier 11,193TMT - Governance and Board Expenses 5,419TMT - Insurance 18,979TMT - Light, Power, Heating 913TMT - Office Expenses 9,000TMT - Professional fees-Eg. Legal fees, consultancy survey etc 500TMT - Repairs and Maintenance (Non Field) 4,086TMT - Telephone, Internet & IT Services (Non Field) 13,178TMT - Travel - National 8,761Total Overheads 140,646Net Surplus 1,049,970TMT - Buildings & Fitout 1,747TMT - Computer Equipment 3,205TMT - Field Equipment 64,120Capital ExpenditureCash Position - Tu Mai Taonga Project *Ngati Rehua-Ngati Wai ki AoteaFor 12 months to 31st December 2024IncomeOperational CostsOther IncomeOverheads*Statement of Cash Position is provisional, and has not been audited

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2024 IMPACT REPORT | Tū Mai Taonga | 29Account Jan 2024-Dec 2024TMT - DoC JFN Funding 806,000TMT - PF2050 Funding 772,000TMT - Auckland Council Funding 941,685TMT - Other Revenue 1,786TMT - Foundation North 600,000TMT - In kind Co-funding Income (Book entry only) 1,009,172Total Income 4,130,643TMT - Admin, IT & Governance Work - Contractors 586,370TMT - Field Operations - Vehicle and Travel Costs 35,562TMT - Field Operations - Hireage & Rental Costs 106,053TMT - Field Operations - Other Misc Field Costs 39,475TMT - Field Operations - Supplies & Materials 33,175TMT - Field Work - Contractors 1,056,274TMT - Other Personnel costs incl Employer Kiwisaver etc 13,346TMT - Personnel protective equipment & uniforms 16,139TMT - Training 44,463TMT - In kind Co-funding Expense (Book entry only) 1,009,172Total Operational Costs 2,940,029Gross Surplus 1,190,614TMT - Interest Income 2Total Other Income 2TMT - Exchange rate variation 53TMT - NRNWKA Trust Overheads 13,015TMT - Provision for Audit 13,125TMT - Provision for Financial Statement preparation 2,625TMT - Accounting 5,863TMT - Bank Fees 434TMT - Communications & Engagement Expenses 31,499TMT - Entertainment 2,003TMT - Freight & Courier 11,193TMT - Governance and Board Expenses 5,419TMT - Insurance 18,979TMT - Light, Power, Heating 913TMT - Office Expenses 9,000TMT - Professional fees-Eg. Legal fees, consultancy survey etc 500TMT - Repairs and Maintenance (Non Field) 4,086TMT - Telephone, Internet & IT Services (Non Field) 13,178TMT - Travel - National 8,761Total Overheads 140,646Net Surplus 1,049,970TMT - Buildings & Fitout 1,747TMT - Computer Equipment 3,205TMT - Field Equipment 64,120Capital ExpenditureCash Position - Tu Mai Taonga Project *Ngati Rehua-Ngati Wai ki AoteaFor 12 months to 31st December 2024IncomeOperational CostsOther IncomeOverheadsTMT - Office Equipment 373TMT - Vehicles 0Total Capital Expenditure 69,445Bank Account 965,915Plus Accounts Receivable & Prepayments 675,296Less Current Liabilities (177,069)Funds available 1,464,142* Statement of Cash Position is provisional, subject to auditCash PositionThe Tū Mai Taonga IT team is honing its skills to create more impact in trapping feral cats and rodents. D Shaun Lee.

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Kaumātua (elder) Opo Ngawaka lives off the grid in one of the most remote parts of the world.With his wife Elaine, their son Jeremiah, their dog Missy and one of the largest tākapu (gannet) colonies in Aotearoa, they are the only kaitiaki so far residing on a windswept Māhuki Island — one of the Broken Islands off Aotea, Great Barrier. And while it’s an isolated existence, Opo has seen a lot in his time. “As a child,” he says, “I remember the excitement of watching the humpback whales breach out of the water off the shores of Rangiahua.”Since then, Opo has witnessed the degradation of the moana (sea) and ngahere (forest). Whaling stripped the moana of the humpbacks. Kauri milling and introduced predators stripped the ngahere of birdlife and bush.This summer, though, has given Opo hope. He’s witnessed something simple but hugely symbolic.“This is the ﬁrst time in my living memory that I have seen the fruit remain on this tree,” he says, pointing to a karamū bush on Māhuki. Karamū is a relatively common plant from the coprosma family, with yellow ﬂowers and orange berries. It is known to Māori to have healing qualities for liver and stomach problems, and even as a cure for vomiting.It’s not the medicinal qualities that excite Opo however. It’s the fact that the plant has been able to ﬂower and produce berries for the ﬁrst time The kaumātua and the karamū bushKaumātua Opo Ngawaka is seeing karamū bushes carry berries for the entire summer for the ﬁrst time in his life.

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2024 IMPACT REPORT | Tū Mai Taonga | 31in his life, due to the work of the Tū Mai Taonga ﬁeld team, which has removed rats from Māhuki Island.Apart from a small number on the coastline the pests have been removed by an intense trapping network.“As well as this ﬂowering, I have also seen a group of 12 kererū sitting together on one tree. They were big and plump, stuffed full of berries. I so wished I had a camera to take a photo. I have never seen this in my life here before either.“I was so excited—it made me realise what a huge problem the rats on the island were and what a threat they have been to our native birds and plants.”“We reckon the tākapu colony is growing as well.”Rats used to be everywhere on the island—in the house Opo built with his own hands on their share of Māori land, under the house, in the tākapu colony—everywhere, taking over the island. They feasted on birds’ eggs, seeds, reptiles, the strawberry patch and anything else in their path. They destroyed the island’s biodiversity and the more vulnerable bird and plant life.The removal of rats from Māhuki and other Broken Islands is part of phase one of Tū Mai Taonga’s predator eradication plan. The lessons learned from this project will help determine the strategy for removing rodents from mainland Aotea.As the former Chair of the Ngāti Rehua, Ngātiwai ki Aotea Trust Board, which oversees Tū Mai Taonga, Opo is encouraged by these small but signiﬁcant gains. He’s optimistic that the health and wellbeing of the ngahere—and of the mana whenua of Aotea—will be restored through the project.“When the project started, we could not imagine what the restoration might look like. And now we are starting to see the gains in birdlife and native plants. It’s uplifting.“And our people are healing too—coming home to jobs that weren’t previously available on Aotea.”The project is underpinned by te ao Māori principles, a Māori worldview that emphasises deep respect for nature and a holistic understanding of the connection between people and the taiao (environment).“We, as Māori, believe in living with the land and not harming it. If we look after the moana and ngahere, they will look after us. If we genuinely work together, we can restore both.“We also want to continue our partnership with our funders. We have had support to get started, and now we want to maintain those partnerships throughout this journey. We have something special to offer and we can do the mahi. But we do need to build our knowledge and keep the work going.“If we all continue to work together and support each other, we will be able to celebrate success in the future too.”

2024 Impact Report

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