Jobs for Nature/Ministry for the Environment

We are in our final year of Jobs for Nature funding from the Ministry for the Environment ($1.78m over 5 years). It’s worth showing you the progress that has been made against the KPIs we agreed on when the funding deed was signed. The figures below were calculated at the end of June, when our financial year ends.

With another 12 months of work to add to these numbers, we should be very pleased with the outstanding results that Brodie and his team have delivered so far. Naturally, we want to maintain this momentum and so the Board and operations teams have been putting a lot of focus on how we can build a sustainable operation that lets us retain the team we have and build on its success.

Strategy

Subsequently, we have reviewed and revised our strategy. Since we published our last strategic plan (in early 2023), much has changed or is about to change:

• Coming to the end of our Ministry for the Environment Jobs for Nature funding (in June 2026).
• An overall reduction in funding for nature and science under the current government.
• The formation in 2024 of Catchment Collectives Aotearoa (“CCA”) which is a national body created to represent and champion the work done by catchment groups throughout NZ. Project Parore is a member and Rick Burke, one of our Board members, sits on the Board of CCA too.
• Discussions are underway regarding the possible formation of a BOP Catchment Collective, which the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) is promoting. I’m heavily involved in this through my dual roles in Project Parore and Bay Conservation Alliance.
• The addition of a new Regional Park to the district (the Noble farm on Hot Springs Road) and ongoing developments at the Western BOP District Council’s Waitekohekohe Recreational Park (between Lund Road and Thompsons Track).
• Implementation of a social procurement policy by the Western BOP District Council, favouring local organisations to generate public value and broader outcomes beyond just price, including economic, social, environmental, and cultural benefits.
• The proposed expansion of the J Swap Quarry in Wharawhara Road under the Fast Track Bill.
• Proposed changes to resource management and freshwater legislation.

It’s becoming clear that central government funding for environmental restoration has come to an end, at least while the current coalition remains in power.

The regional Catchment Collective concept being pushed by MPI is intended to reduce their workload by reducing how many organisations they will have to deal with in the Catchment Care space. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that the savings MPI will make are going to be passed on to the front line (groups like ours) and even now we only have very vague commitments of any future funding being available at all, despite professed cross party support for community led catchment groups.

As a result, we are now pursuing commercial opportunities which offer us the chance to help fill that gap. Some of these are with private enterprises and others with the Councils. For example we have just completed a major project for the WBOPDC at Te Mata Reserve in Waihi Beach, which was open to commercial tender. Part of the job required us to involve the wider community, iwi and Waihi Beach School, which is one of our strengths.

At times, the team may work outside our core rohe, because there is demand for our services and we need to generate income. But we will not work outside our core business – environmental restoration.

Our rohe

UEMI’s roots lie in the Uretara Estuary, as you know. Since then, the group has expanded its interest first to three adjacent catchments, then to the eight Northern Tauranga moana catchments which have been our focus over the past four years.

There is still plenty to be done in these catchments – we are by no means finished here. However there is a yawning gap at the other end of Tauranga harbour and there is demand for our help. Our Board has decided that we should step into that gap, for both environmental and commercial reasons. Consequently, we are recommending a change to our constitution to allow us to work all the way south to the Wairoa Catchment.

Our primary focus will remain at this end of the harbour but we want to start chipping away at the other end. The Wairoa catchment is as big as the rest of the catchments combined and that will be the last place we start work. We are hoping that our activity near there might inspire a local group to take responsibility for it themselves.

NOTES:

1. All data based on Sub-Catchment Action Plans 2012 + progress reports 2013-16 (all catchments)
2. Riparian margin includes both sides of every stream.
3. The first four catchments listed have been added since the last strategic plan was published. Also, the whole of the Waiau and Aongatete catchments are now included.

Plant sourcing

One of our major costs is plants. As word has spread about the efficiency of our team, demand has grown for our services and for more trees. The Board has decided that the best way to keep plant costs down as well as being able to reliably meet demand is to grow more of them ourselves. This was a major factor in our shift to the new Church Road premises where we have installed substantial propagation infrastructure, to support growing both nursery/pioneer plants as well as canopy trees and other species suitable for restoration work.

Our volunteer team, led by Board member Peter Babbage, will be challenged to collect more seed. They mainly focus on the emergent species. We have employed a nursery manager to oversee the overall operations and we have purchased a potting machine to make the process efficient.

I’d like to thank our volunteer team from Renaturing Katikati for the support they gave to the move to our new base. I’d also like to thank Ian Stevens, our new landlord, who has made a massive contribution both in time and money towards the new HQ. Without his support much of what we have done just wouldn’t have been possible.

Quarry expansion

The announcement last year that the J Swap Quarry had applied for a fast track approval of an extension to their Wharawhara Road operation was met with some dismay by the community at large. We have been talking to J Swap ever since and hosted a public meeting earlier this year for people to hear directly from them and others about the proposal and concerns.

We have also been doing a lot of research into the state of the surrounding bush and water, which will be condensed into a report that everybody can understand.

The expansion project itself seems to have gone very quiet. I know DOC has some serious concerns about J Swaps adherence to existing permit conditions and Forest and Bird have voiced a number of concerns about the risks involved in expansion. In the last Quarry Engagement Group meeting I attended, J Swap suggested that they may reduce the size of the proposed expansion and try to work within the envelope that has already been approved for mining, but there’s been no further updates since then.

Wrap up

It’s been another demanding year for all of us. Besides the massive amount of work that our team carries out every year – this year we’ve also been developing our new base and refining our business model. Our exit from the old base has been complicated by storm damage done there in June and we’re still talking to insurers about that.

Your Board has been working hard to make sure we are building a resilient, sustainable operation that will survive well into the future. We’ve weathered a few dramas with personnel, and with landowners cancelling projects at the last minute (leaving us holding much higher numbers of trees at the end of the planting season than anticipated).

Our success is defined by the results we achieve and I think they speak for themselves. I’m not going to thank individual board members and staff today – but I thank all of them collectively for their passion and their hard work. It takes a village to raise a child. Project Parore is now 21 years old and Katikati can be proud of its offspring!