Our places: Te Ahuriri wetland
Image: ECan – video 1
“It would have been a magic place; an oasis of water, of life… I think this is a good example of working together collaboratively between the Crown, between regional authorities and Iwi as well as the community to try to get something to happen that gives the mana back to waterways.” – Cr. Craig Pauling, Ngāi Te Ruahikihiki (Video 1)
Background
In 1848, Ngāi Tahu sold Canterbury to the Crown but reserved the right to mahinga kai. However, most of the land was soon privatised and waterbodies became land-locked, preventing access.
“Past generations didn’t have supermarkets. They relied on these type of places not only for their mahinga kai out of the water, but a lot of the plants as well – that was their doctor’s dispensary.” – Les Wanhalla, Ngāi Moki, Ngāi Te Ruahikihiki (Video 1)
“Our people became impoverished in our own landscape.” – Cr. Craig Pauling (Video 1)
In spite of repeated requests and petitions to the courts, they were denied entry until the 1890s when Te Koraha Maori Reserve was granted to enable Maori access for mahinga kai.
However, in the meantime, European settlers regarded these life-supporting wetlands as useless swamps needing to be drained in order to support their farming practices. The Lake Ellesemere Drainage Board aimed to drain Ahururi Lagoon by lowering the lake and straightening the river. By the early 1920s, the lagoon was gone. By the end of the twentieth century, the river had become a canal-like drain that carried effluent into Lake Ellesmere, which became the most polluted lake in Aoteaora.
Throughout the years, Ngai Tahi had wanted to see see the wetland, and the life it once supported, returned.
“So many people have been involved in this; we had so much work done that when the government said, ‘Well we need to do something about wetlands and we’ve got a pot of money for that,’ we put out hands up.” – Donald Couch, Ngāi Tahu Ecan Commissioner 2010-2015 (Video 1).
Key actions
Multiple actions were taken in parallel and evolved and were adapted over time. the following is a broad summary. A fuller account of events is outlined in Video 1.
- With the Government recognising the value of wetlands, Rakiihia Tau Senior from Ngai Tuahiti lodged a claim of Ahururi itself.
- Following community meetings, it was evident that the desire to restore the wetland came not only from local Papatipu Rūnanga, the wider community and local farmers also supported the project.
- The Te Waihora Co-Governance Group was formed and is managed through the Whakaora Te Waihora programme, represented on the Ahuriri Lagoon Steering Group, which advises on the project.
- The proposed restoration area was on an Environment Canterbury reserve. Advice and funding was sought from them, and a bid was put in under the co-governance arrangement for $3.5 million to construct a wetland over a 4ha area, incorporating the original channel of the Hurutini Halswell River (Fig. 1).
- Part of the funds came from ECan, part from the Ministry for the Environment Freshwater fund, and part from NIWA.
- Mana whenua were involved from from outset in the co-design, co-development, implantation and monitoring in conjunction with ecologists and engineers
- The key goals are to improve mahinga kai, improve water quality including in Huritini Halswell River and Te Waihora/Lake Ellesmere., improve overall biodiversity.
- NIWA worked with Papatipu rūnanga to develop a mātauranga Maori monitoring programme for assessing the lagoon.
- 80,000 aquatic plant species and 52,000 terrestrial species in drier areas were planted (Fig. 2) and are now well-established (Fig. 5).
How this helps mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change
“Healthy functional ecosystems help reduce climate change vulnerability and disaster risk by:
- Reducing physical exposure to hazards by serving as protective barriers or buffers and so mitigating hazard impacts, including in wetlands, forests and coastal ecosystems; and
- Reducing socioeconomic vulnerability to hazard impacts: sustain human livelihoods and provide essential goods such as food, fibre, medicines and construction materials, which strengthen people’s resilience to disasters.” – Convention on Biological Diversity
- In addition to returning these life-supporting services and creating resiliency to climate change, native plants and wetland soils sequester more carbon dioxide (drawdown) than pasture grass.
- As sea levels rise and Te Waihora Lake Ellesmere, and wetland and the increasing incidence of river flooding will become increasingly difficult. Te Ahuriri will provide new source of seeds and a nodal point from which native plants and natural regeneration can occur, acting as a natural buffer to rising sea levels and concurrent changes
- The project serves as an exemplar for what can be done, with monitoring that can help inform other councils and groups of the outcomes over time. This in turn will help refine the future ‘re-wilding’ of wetl
- Local schools have been involved via Te Ara Kākāriki ‘Kids’ Discovery Plant-out’ (Figs. 3 & 4), helping to raise awareness of what can be done and inspiring the next generation.
- The overall project is an exemplar of how everyone can work together to restore our amazing places and create nature-based solutions.
“If we gather kai here, therefore the land is returned back to its mauri, the mauri is returned, and then you know that food can be gathered and its healthy kai, because the environment is good; healthy kai for our whanua. People are digging drains, keeping the drains clear so they can drain the land. They’re fighting Papatūānunku, fighting Mother Earth. Just let it return to what it wants to be and then kind of men we can nurture it, be nurtured by Papatūānunku,and we can nurture here as well.“ – Tumo Taiao Iaean Cranwell – Kati Irakehu, Kati Kuti (Video 1)
