Founded in 2020, the charitable trust was a beneficiary of the government’s Jobs for Nature funding, which tumu whakarae (CEO) Mike Rewi says allowed the organisation to get some "really awesome conservation gains", particularly over the past three years, which includes planting thousands of trees, and restoring over 10,000 hectares of freshwater catchment in the Whakatipu.
Additionally, Rewi says, Mana Tahuna’s built a lot of capacity and capability within the trust they didn’t want to lose.
"That’s just created a platform for ourselves, and I think many other conservation trusts, to actually start to offer our services in a commercial capacity, as well as in a funded one, through government.
"For the past 12 months we’ve just been building that in-house — so that’s everything from quoting and customer experience and client feedback, and all the things you’d see from a commercial outfit."
About a year ago, Rewi says they spoke to the Department of Conservation and said they had "a bit of work to do" trying to create self-sustainability for the trust, and for the environment, to ensure gains made to date aren’t lost.
"We’ve planted 150,000 trees that we need to get to a mature age so they can live on their own.
"With the funding dried up, we’ve got to get a bit creative with how we’re going to fund it ourselves."
Subsequently, Toitu Mana Tahuna has been launched, which has absorbed the charitable trust’s environmental side.
Rewi says it’ll carry out all the services Mana Tahuna’s known for to date, such as large-scale planting, commercial and residential landscaping, water and ecology reporting and environmental impact assessments, in a commercial capacity, "rather than a funded or sponsorship one".
All proceeds will go back into the charitable trust, to ensure it can keep providing other services.
"It’s still really important for us to clean up the health of Lake Hayes, and this is just going to be one of the ways we try to pay for it, rather than rely on government and council funding, which we know is tightening up."
Rewi notes Mana Tahuna’s already operating Central Otago-wide, doing environmental impact and cultural assessments in Roxburgh and Cromwell, for example.
"We’re just really keen to work with developers — in that commercial landscaping, there’s just so much going on in the Basin.
"That’s a market we’re keen to crack into."
