Northland Īnanga Spawning Habitat Restoration Project

The ‘Northland Īnanga Spawning Habitat Restoration Project’ aims to scale up the collaborative work locating, protecting, and enhancing īnanga spawning habitats, alongside community engagement and capacity/capability development in the Te Tai Tokerau/Northland region of Aotearoa/New Zealand. Data will be mapped and used to prioritise habitat restoration that builds resiliency for the effects brought on by climate change and to motivate and implement actions that will improve water quality.

We are working collaboratively with many stakeholders to help fill regional knowledge gaps that hinder stakeholders’ ability to effectively manage freshwater to protect this keystone, taonga species classified as ‘At Risk - Declining’. The collaborative process and modelling will be shared openly with partners and collaborators from other regions in Aotearoa wanting to learn from or replicate what is achieved, for an even greater reach. With some hapū/iwi and landowners potentially reluctant to share spatial information from their rohe/land, there are sensitivities around some of the data, and a clear pathway with room for adaptive management is required from the outset to manage these sensitivities and ensure that the data is handled with the utmost integrity. The project commits to best practices around data management and to move with the changing regulatory landscape around Indigenous knowledge and IP.

The project builds on the existing knowledge and resources of Whitebait Connection, the Department of Conservation (DOC), Northland Regional Council (NRC), local landowners, and tangata whenua. It operates under a framework for a coordinated strategic approach to build capacity for a regional model that encourages collaboration and localisation of efforts to improve the habitat for īnanga (Galaxias maculatus). This project also increases efforts in the targeted catchments to improve water quality and empower local tangata whenua, landowners, and the community to take informed actions in their local areas.

Nicholas Naysmith
nicholas@mountainstosea.org.nz

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