Liitle River Regeneration

Liitle River Regeneration Kanuka-Waiwera Project Update
We were approached in 2001 by the Kanuka-Wairewa Partnership to help them advance their native forest regeneration goals on a 13 hectare block of land they had bought near Little River on Banks Peninsula. The land was originally bought by four friends in 1994. Prometheus provided finance to enable new partners to buy into the project when one of the original partners wished to sell and to facilitate further development steps.

The partnership was in touch again at the end of last year to finally draw the last tranche of the loan they had negotiated at that time. A number of factors had contributed to significant delays in their plans but they were finally approaching completion of the bridge they had been building to provide better access onto the property. As one of the partners, Grant, reported:

"The bridge was made with recycled steel support beams, ‘ecotimber' vitex hardwood decking from community forestry projects in Solomon Islands and recycled Jarrah power poles. Most of the work on the embankment and track improvement and gravelling was carried out using machines running on biodiesel manufactured from used deep fry oil."


Over the early years the partners had made good progress with planting thousands of native trees, eradicating and/or controlling pests and weeds and upgrading the roading access to the property. However in recent years they've changed their approach, following the view of those who argue that it's best to allow nature to take it's own course with forest regeneration.

As a result Manfred, another of the partners, has written:

"With the help of an ever increasing wood pigeon population we are witnessing the transformation of a formerly bare kanuka and tree lucerne forest interior into a second generation broadleaf forest understorey."

We wish the families involved all the best as they move forward with their next objective to build accommodation on the property so that they can enjoy the peace and serenity they find there in more comfort.