Freshwater project to restore rivers: One-year initiative will provide local catchment solutions

Tairāwhiti Wai Connections is working with local communities to help restore and protect rivers, streams, lakes and wetlands. 

Wai Connection, or Tatai Ki Te Wai, is a catchment community engagement project offering on-the-ground support to assist with catchment issues through tailored change at source. 

It was developed by the Mountains to Sea Community Trust (MTSCT) and funded through the Ministry for the Environment’s Essential Freshwater Fund. 

It is a national initiative to help protect and restore rivers, streams, lakes and wetlands by building capability and capacity in New Zealand freshwater management. 

The Tairāwhiti team was established in June and will be funded until June next year. 

A regional needs assessment done as part of the funding application identified eight catchment areas with existing groups that Wai Connections could support. 

They are the Waimatā, Whāngārā, Ūawa, Waipaoa, Eastern Whio Link, Ruakituri, Motu and Wharekopae catchments. 

Dr Sarah Boyle is the Tairāwhiti regional co-ordinator and works with two catchment co-ordinators — Sam Gibson and Anne-Marie Vigeant. 

With them is Inanga Spawning Project co-ordinator Kirsty Gaddum and Amy Hardy, Hana Hardy and Jo Palmer from He Awa Ora, He Tai Ora Trust, which delivers the Experiencing Marine Reserves kaupapa (with Wai Connections) to get education and training into local schools and communities. 

Boyle said Tairāwhiti catchment communities were inspiring. 

“This is such a fantastic kaupapa [programme] to support them in at a time where support is really appreciated. 

“This project is also able to carry out extensive saltwater wedge mapping to identify potential inanga [whitebait] spawning sites and teach our tamariki [children] about our freshwater ecosystems through hands-on experiences at the awa [river] — connecting the journey from mountains to sea. 

“We have a great team of conservationists, educators and experts both regionally and nationally supporting this project, and this sharing of resources is really helpful to our catchment communities,” she said. 

MTSCT has a 20-year track record of supporting communities to achieve marine and freshwater conservation through science and matauranga Māori-based experiential programmes and community engagement. 

The support it provides is through resources and online tools, science expertise and “real people”. 

By June 2025, it will have a community-based monitoring website providing an opportunity for catchment groups to have their data available online and accessible by all the community. 

Wai Connections works alongside Gisborne District Council, the Department of Conservation, the Ministry of Primary Industries and other regional stakeholders.