The kaimai mamaku is home to a diverse and unique range of ecosystems.
From saltmarshes, wetlands and lowland rivers between the coast and foothills to the fog forests, towering podocarp forests and rocky outcrops of the mountain ranges.
This taonga | treasure forms a key connection and transition between the forests of the central North Island volcanic plateau and the Coromandel Peninsula.
This transition zone is ecologically unique and gives rise to unusual combinations of animals and vegetation found nowhere else. It is the northern limit for silver beech, kamahi, pink pine, and the southern limit for Coprosma dodonaefolia, towai and kauri.
“Without the whole, the parts are lost, and without the parts, there is no whole. Both lie within the same plane.”
It's all connected.
As well as being home to an abundance of taonga species, and thousands of plants, lichens, mosses and fungi, the Kaimai Mamaku ngahere plays a crucial role in stabilising fragile steep soils and regulating water flow into the streams and rivers of the Bay of Plenty and Waikato.
With dense healthy forest cover in the Kaimai Mamaku, streams are less likely to erode and flooding is less severe, reducing the threat to our homes, farms, orchards, roads/bridges and harbours downstream.
The forests also normalise sediment movement in waterways, ensuring that Tauranga Moana and the Tikapa Moana | Firth of Thames are not smothered in silt. Those harbours are important nurseries of the recreational fish species that a third of New Zealanders enjoy catching.
Tūi. Image Credit: Brian Crumm
Image Credit: Brian Crumm
Fungi.
Kōtare. Image Credit: Brian Crumm
Whīo
Supplejack
Mayfly. Image credit: Waikare Ranges WEST
protect our taonga
With the completion of Jobs for Nature funding, and insufficient government support, many conservation and restoration projects are set to end. This will put hundreds of people out of work and reverse three years hard mahi - infrastructure going to waste, pests and predators taking over again.
The good news is - you can help.