Saving Raukūmara: Iwi-Led Action at Massive Scale (with Ora Barlow)

“The Raukūmara was never prioritised. It was forgotten."

For generations, local iwi Ngati Porou and Te Whanau-a-Apanui watched their ancestral forest degrade. The Raukūmara reached breaking point. Deer had stripped the understory bare, and possums and rats had multiplied unchecked, reaching catastrophic levels. The question became urgent: how could they save their dying forest?

In this episode of the People Helping Nature Podcast, Ora Barlow, who played an instrumental role, shares the remarkable journey of the Raukūmara Pae Maunga Restoration Project - an iwi-led conservation initiative that's become the largest of its kind in the world.

"The ngāhere is such an honest storyteller of its own story. It tells its story. It doesn't lie. Once you see it, you can't unsee it."

Listening to their ngāhere (forest ...