ecological restoration

Ko te oranga o te tangata kei roto i tōna tūhono ki tōna taiao. Mo te hunga Māori o Aotearoa, ko te whakapapa ki a Ranginui raua ko Papatūānuku te ara whakaū i to tātou hononga ki ngā atua Māori me ō rātou tini tamariki. Ko ngā atua ngā pou o te ao tūroa e kaha whāngai, e kaha manāki ana i te hunga Māori me tōna ahurea. Koia nei ko te orokohanga mai o te kaitiakitanga. Mā ngā mahi ā-rēhia, ngā tikanga nō tuawhakarere, ka ora ai te hononga o te tangata ki tōna taiao.

Kei Aotearoa nei kua roa noa atu ngā tāngata taketake e noho matapopore ana ki o rātou whenua, maunga, moana, roto, awa, kūkūwai me ērā atu pūnaha hauropi wai Māori hoki. I te tau 2017 i tīmatahia e Te Māra a Tāne he kaupapa haere-kōtui i te taha o te iwi manawhenua a Taranaki Whānui ki te Upoko o te Ika, me ētahi atu hoa haere-kōtui hoki, me kore ake pea ka whakahoungia te hauropi wai Māori, ngahere hoki o te awa Kaiwharawhara me tōna rohenga wai. Ko tēnei te rohenga wai tino nui rawa i roto i te taone matua o Te Whanganui-a-Tara, ā, he mea kairangi tonu ki te iwi, ki te ao hauropi hoki.

Planting container-grown native seedlings is a restoration technique widely used to enhance biodiversity, including in urban areas in New Zealand. We measured survival and growth of seedlings of three native tree species (Aristotelia serrata, wineberry (n = 743); Cordyline australis, cabbage tree (n = 666); and Pittosporum eugenioides, lemonwood (n = 701)) planted in 11 forest restoration sites in Wellington, New Zealand, between 2008 and 2012.

A 55 ha remnant of coastal native forest at Wenderholm Regional Park (near Auckland) was selected as the site for a pilot experiment to test if rat control could yield measurable benefits in increased productivity of New Zealand pigeons. Talon 50WB poison baits were used to reduce rat numbers over the summer of 1992-93. Pigeon breeding success was significantly higher (5 fledglings from 11 nests) than in preceding summers without rat control (no fledglings from 27 nests).

The ecological restoration of Tiritiri Matangi Island is a community-driven initiative that has captured the interest of the international conservation movement. Ecological restoration commonly focuses on the establishment and maintenance of functioning indigenous ecosystems through the control or eradication of invasive weeds and animal pests, indigenous species translocations, and habitat enhancement, including revegetation. Revegetation of indigenous plant communities provides an opportunity to kick-start natural processes and facilitate succession towards a diverse ecosystem.

Tiritiri Matangi Island (‘Tiri’) in the Hauraki Gulf of the northern North Island of New Zealand was deforested, pastorally farmed, and then farming was abandoned in 1972. This history is typical of many northern New Zealand islands. The island’s modern history is less typical; since 1984 it has been the focus of a major restoration project involving thousands of volunteers. No original forest remains, but grazed secondary forest in a few valley bottoms covered about 20% of the island when farming was abandoned. Tiri’s wild vascular flora was recorded in the 1900s and again in the 1970s.

Forty years since the cessation of grazing on Tiritiri Matangi, the island has been transformed by a restoration programme. However, a big question remained: What the island would have looked like if restoration had not occurred? This study addresses that question. Some sections of the island were deliberately not restored and allowed to regenerate naturally to provide a reference point for the changes brought about by direct intervention. In one area a transect of plots was available in which species composition and frequency information had been measured in a pre-restoration state.

Tiritiri Matangi Island is a scientific reserve in the Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand that has a long history of degradation from human occupation. The ecological restoration of the island commenced in 1984, with revegetation, species translocations and management of invasive species. Ecological restoration projects are, in essence, experimental in that the restoration outcomes are not known. Thus, they offer opportunities for formal research to run parallel with the restoration process, to track, assess and critique ecological manipulations and the resulting outcomes.

Restoration of native forest vegetation in urban environments may be limited due to isolation from native seed sources and to the prevalence of exotic plant species. To investigate urban seed availability we recorded the composition of seed rain, soil seed banks and vegetation at native forest restoration plantings up to 36 years old in Hamilton City and compared these with naturally regenerating forest within the city and in a nearby rural native forest remnant.

New Zealand urban environments are currently dominated by exotic plant species. Restoring native vegetation and its associated native biodiversity in these landscapes is desirable for both cultural and ecological reasons. We report on the first four years of an ongoing vegetation restoration experiment in Waitakere City, Auckland, that addresses four challenges to urban restoration: weeds, Anthropic Soils, attraction of frugivorous birds, and patch isolation.