Our places: Te Manahuna Aoraki
Aoraki Mt Cook and Tasman River image: Cody Whitelaw
Te Manahuna AorakiContext and origins of the Project
Launched in 2018, Te Manahuna Aoraki is a nationally significant biodiversity project focused on restoring the natural landscapes and threatened species of the upper Mackenzie Basin and Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park. The aim is to enhance biodiversity across 310,000 hectares of braided river systems, lakes, alpine habitats, and Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park.
This is a special conservation collaboration in terms of scale—both in size, and the number of different partners brought together—in a shared vision to care for this unique landscape and ecosystem.
Te Manahuna is the Māori name for the Mackenzie Basin and means the place of enlightenment. It was an important area for Māori as they undertook seasonal mahika kai expeditions because of the abundance of weka and tuna (eel).
The project aims to preserve the unique landscapes and secure a safe habitat for endangered species ranging from kea and tuke/rock wren in the alpine zone to the braided river species including ngutu parore/wrybill, robust grasshoppers, jewelled gecko, and the world’s rarest wading bird—the kakī/black stilt.
The 310,000ha project area includes Aoraki/ Mount Cook National Park, mountain ranges, Lake Pukaki and Lake Takapō/Tekapo and the extensive braided river systems that feed them (Fig. 1).
The steps taken to create this project are built upon decades of work and research undertaken by several agencies, including Department Conservation (DOC) work to protect the Upper Waitaki Basin through Project River Recovery (Video 2), linking and expanding trapping networks (Fig. 2), strategic management plans, and facilitating research that is both incorporated into these plans and will benefit conservation management strategies elsewhere, especially in a changing climate.
Key actions
Building relationships and ongoing collaboration across multiple agencies, iwi, and with landowners has been fundamental. Links to more detailed information about the project and several decades of research from Project River Recovery that have contributed to the Project’s inception, are listed below under Resources.
- Monitoring macro-invertebrates as baseline indicator species, and monitoring tuke/rock wren (essential to assess the progress and outcomesof such a long term project)
- The three kaitiaki rūnaka of Arowhenua, Waihao and Moeraki are leading the work on protecting native fish in small upland streams, and restoring Motuariki Island in Lake Takapō/Tekapo—once a meeting place of chiefs
- A successful captive-bred kaki programme means that juveniles are being released into the wild
- Extended trapping lines in the Tasman, Godley, Cass and Macaulay river systems to protect braided river birds including the kaki (Fig. 2) (co-benefits include protecting invertebrates and reptiles)
- Built the world’s first 6,000m2 predator exclusion fenced area for insects (specifically the robust grasshopper).
- Collaborative work to control invasive weeds is being supplemented with ‘Covid-19 Jobs for Nature’ funding from Land Information New Zealand (LINZ)
- Data collected on on stoats, feral cats, possums, ferrets, hedgehogs and hares via trail cameras
- A trial to test baits to lure feral cats found that piles of minced rabbit heads were most effective
- Supporting Masters and PhD projects to monitor Norway rats and hedgehogs (pest species), and turiwhatu /banded dotterel (braided river bird) winter migratory patterns
- First-of-its-kind study on managing hares; pilot Mark Pridham and high country farmers Laurie Prouting and Johnny
Wheeler helped develop a way of projectile netting hares from helicopters - A coordinated effort led by runholders is underway to reduce the Canada geese population
- Designed using input from landowners, three different predator proof fences are being trialled for wind speed endurance (up to 300 km/hr gusts in spring in the trial locations)
How this helps mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change
“Healthy and 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
Ecosystem services, which are provided free of charge by healthy natural environments supporting high levels of biodiversity, are critical to our existence because they are literally the life-support systems we need to live. This includes the food we eat, clean freshwater, the oxygen we need to breathe, and a stable climate.
Aotearoa’s unique natural history provided us with these free services. But they’re under threat from habitat loss and introduced pest plants and animals. Climate change is also bringing new and uncertain threats.
Te Manahuna is addressing these threats by using a multi-pronged strategy outlined in Key Actions above. Other actions include the protection and restoration of wetlands, nature’s kidneys. They are also crucial habitats for keystone species, sequester large volumes of carbon in their peaty soils, and reduce the impacts of floods by absorbing water like a sponge and then gradually releasing it.
“Current understanding of how New Zealand’s indigenous ecosystems and species will respond to climate change is very limited, reflecting a long-standing shortfall in research funding for understanding or predicting climate change impacts.” – National Climate Change Risk Assessment for New Zealand
The Project is both supporting and leading research. Much is still not understood about the range and behaviours of introduced pest species in different habitats. They are highly successful generalist species, very capable of adapting to new environments, new food sources, and new challenges (including efforts to eradicate them and a warming climate). This gives them an advantage over native species that evolved to live in specialist niche habitats. Pest species are being tracked and monitored to better understand their behavior and range, and new techniques including predator proof fencing at high altitudes in extreme winds are being trialled. The results from this research and experimentation will help the future management of ecosystems both here and elsewhere in Aotearoa.
Our glaciers are melting. Rapidly. And this region will be one of the most affected. As glaciers retreat, some lakes will expand while new lakes and tarns will form. In some parts of the project area, rain is predicted to increase but less snow may fall, increasing the risk of floods and landslides (melting snow releases water more slowly). Other areas are predicted to have less rainfall. These extremes could impact the reliability of hydroelectricity generation at a time when we are divesting from fossil fuels and need to ensure ongoing power supply. The number of frost days will decrease and cold-loving species will try to migrate to higher altitudes.
Having data across these wide range of habitats and ecosystem types is also immensely useful in tracking when and how species (including pest species) migrate to new places and higher elevations in response to a warming climate (this is known as ‘phenological shifting’; find out more on this website). Changes in this area include rising temperatures and rapid retreat of alpine glaciers and subsequent formation and expansion of glacial lakes.
“Climate change has caused shifts in species’ distributions, changes in cyclic and seasonal behaviour, and altered population dynamics. In addition, it has caused further disruptions from the genetic to the ecosystem level in marine, terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems.” – Department of Conservation
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