Recloaking Papatūānuku is an ambitious initiative developed by Pure Advantage that aims to plant and restore 2 million ha of native forests and wetlands over the next few decades. Recloaking Papatūānuku is also about looking after our remaining primary (old growth) forests and wetlands. Well managed old-growth forests and wetlands, and new and enhanced native forests and wetlands will increase landscape resilience, help conserve our unique native biodiversity and permanently sequester atmospheric CO2. This initiative represents an orders-of-magnitude increase in biodiversity restoration for Aotearoa, but it is the minimum required if we are to have any hope of tackling the effects of climate change and addressing the biodiversity crisis.
Short-lived exotic tree monocultures such as pines are not able to deliver these outcomes. In contrast, Recloaking Papatūānuku can, and will do it in a manner that also recognises the strong links between native ecosystems and the people of Aotearoa, both Māori and Pākeha.
”Short-lives exotic tree monocultures such as pines are not able to deliver these outcomes
There are several ways that Recloaking Papatūānuku will be implemented in practice:
1. Retaining and enhancing through control of invasive plants and animals our remaining old growth forests and wetlands across both public and private land. As well as their outstanding biodiversity values, these forests and wetlands hold vital stores of carbon that we need to keep in the biosphere. Healthy old growth forests are also vital for slowing the release of water and sediments into our waterways.
2. Establishing new plantings to increase the area of native forest, enhance connectivity between existing native forest remnants, help buffer small native forest remnants, create food resources for native fauna, and bring missing species back into the areas where they have been lost. We already have a huge amount of experience in Aotearoa in establishing new forests. Tiritiri Matangi (Auckland), Waiwhakareke (Hamilton) and Tiromoana Bush (Canterbury) are but a few of the many examples of restoration success that can be achieved in short time periods.
3. Allowing degraded areas, especially unproductive pasture, to regenerate naturally back into native forest. This process, also called minimum interference management, can be a quick and cheap method to re-establish native forest and works best when seed sources are close at hand. One of the best examples is Hinewai Reserve in Canterbury, but many others occur across Aotearoa, some as the result of deliberate management and others have developed unprompted.
4. Enriching existing regenerating and degraded native forests. Throughout Aotearoa, there are large areas of regenerating forests dominated by species like kānuka and mānuka, as well as previously logged forests that have lost their tall emergent conifers. Many of these forests are unable to develop back into a more advanced condition because of the lack of seed sources for mature forest species such as rimu, tōtara, mataī, tawhai/beech, tawa, northern rātā, pūriri, etc. Through targeted management, and especially enrichment with missing species, these forests can be enhanced and placed on a trajectory to a mature forest state.
5. Transitioning existing exotic monocultures to native forest where landowners do not want to maintain exotic trees. This can be done through selective thinning, perhaps with harvesting, or through clear-felling and then subsequent replanting with native forest species. The transitioning of the Hunua Water Reserve plantations by Watercare (Auckland City) to native forest is a good example.
6. As part of native forest restoration, establishing and enhancing wetlands high in catchments. These wetlands help retain water and sediment, increase habitat for native biodiversity and form important carbon sinks.
”Degraded areas, especially unproductive pasture, can naturally regenerate back into native forest
Kānuka forest that has regenerated on abandoned farmland, Wairoa district. With enrichment and ungulate control, this has the potential to develop into more mature native forest. Photo: David Norton/Recloaking Papatūānuku.
In all cases, both old growth and these new and enhanced forests and wetlands will require ongoing management to ensure that they continue to grow and develop over the decades and centuries it takes for them to mature. Key components of management are the control of invasive plant and animal pests, especially ungulates (deer, goats and pigs), which are perhaps the biggest threat to successfully implementing Recloaking Papatūānuku.
Native wetlands and forests need to be well connected, to enhance their function as flood stoppers, and to provide habitat for species who depend on these diverse environments.
For too long the western approach to conservation has been to separate people from nature, as epitomized by the New Zealand Conservation, Reserves and National Parks Acts. But if we are to tackle the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change, we can no longer separate people from nature. We need to be in there nurturing our forests and wetlands to help heal the wounds we have caused. There is much that we as a nation can learn from Māori about this.
”For too long the western approach to conservation has been to separate people from nature.
But it’s not only about how much native habitat we establish, it’s also about where these forests and wetlands are located in the landscape that matters. This is critical if we are to gain all the benefits they can provide us: landscape resilience, native biodiversity, water quality, carbon storage and of course the direct benefits people experience from being in nature. In many cases, new native forests and wetlands will be in heads of catchments to slow the flow of flood water and reduce sediment loss, but in other cases new forests might be in productive lowlands to enhance connectivity between existing forest remnants, provide habitat for birds and be located close to where people live.
In all cases, decisions about planting and restoration of native ecosystems need to be made locally and at the catchment scale. They need to be made by the people who live in these catchments, the farmers and mana whenua and local communities, as it is these local communities who will be doing the mahi and who will know the most about the whenua and who will be most connected and benefit from native forests and wetlands.
The first steps of returning native forest to Christchurch’s Port Hills – kānuka plantings established into pasture that will soon form a closed canopy. Photo: David Norton/Recloaking Papatūānuku.
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