At Terra and Tide, we have a partnership with Love our Wetlands Waiheke which restores wetlands on Waiheke in 5 key sites. Waiheke Island lost most of its forest cover by the 1870’s – 1900’s as European settlers milled the great kauri trees and cleared the forests for farming. By the early 1900’s, Waiheke Island was a very degraded landscape compared to the beautiful forested island it once was. Farmers also drained wetlands and turned them into pastures which meant we lost our important wetland ecosystems from the island.
Love our Wetlands is now doing a fantastic job to restore some of our key wetland systems on the island by planting native trees and plants in the wetlands. The world has now lost a huge amount of our natural wetlands (90% globally and in NZ) and wetland ecosystems have a critical role to play in our environment, both globally and here on Waiheke Island given the significant benefits they create including:
- They are one of the most efficient ecosystems for sequestering carbon
- In rain events, they slow the running of the water to the sea and mean that we have less sedimentation in our bays and harbours
- They increase our biodiversity and in Waiheke’s case provide important habitat for our endangered birds including birds who enjoy wetland environments, like the Pateke (brown teal) and the critically endangered Australasian Bittern (Matuku Hūrepo) and Fernbird (Matata) as well as our Giant Kokupu (native fish). Read more
We are proud to support wetland restoration on Waiheke and to play a contributing role through tree donation, participation in planting events and bringing tour groups to restore wetlands.
If you are interested in assisting with wetland restoration on Waiheke Island, either through a donation of trees or bringing your corporate or tour group to help plant, we would love to hear from you – together we can make a positive difference!
