The ancestral lands of Ngāti Kearoa Ngāti Tuara surround our sacred maunga, Te Horohoroinga o ngā ringa o Kahumatamomoe and have been occupied by our hapū for over five hundred years. Our hapū have lived and travelled between Horohoro and Tihiotonga (from the Pukehangi area back to mamaku, known as the Te Paiaka block) and our kaumatua tell stories of travelling and hunting in the area. Our environmental team has been working on the Horohoro maunga since 2018 building our pest control capacity within the hapū. This new project will be extending our operational area to include conservation on the Te Paiaka block. Restoring the mauri of the forest to maintain a healthy and functioning forest ecosystem, will at a minimum require controlling of possums, rats, mustelids, wallabies, deer and pigs to very low levels, which will create a safer environment for all of our taonga species.

Te Runanga o Ngāti Kea Ngāti Tuara Charitable Trust is the governance entity that has management oversight for this project.

Earlier this November we had the privilege of taking Wayne O'Keefe up Horohoro maunga to help us with some plant identification. As part of our project, we will be undertaking result monitoring of certain key plant species, which are palatable to possums and deer, therefore if the plants are heavily browsed the deer/possum numbers are high. However, if there are areas where these plant species are beginning to re-establish therefore our trapping/culling is working and the plants are starting to recover.