History
Te Awarua-o-Porirua Harbour, covering 17,721 hectares, has experienced significant environmental degradation since the 1950s due to urban development, land-use intensification, and increased contaminants. To restore the harbour and protect its social, cultural, and ecological values, it is essential to reduce fine sediment and nitrogen by improving riparian management.
Catchment Planting Programme
The Riparian Management Strategy identified priority areas in the Te Awarua-o-Porirua Harbour catchment for riparian management, based mainly on erosion risks.
The Riparian Management Programme is a five-year project, started in 2021, to plant 630,000 riparian plants along waterways in the harbour catchment. It is jointly funded by Porirua City Council and Ministry for the Environment.
Key strategies include permanent stock exclusion fencing, revegetation, weed control, and collaboration between councils, Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangatira, and landowners, focusing on protecting waterways.
What's the history of the programme?
The Riparian Management Strategy identified priority areas in the Te Awarua-o-Porirua Harbour catchment for riparian management, based mainly on erosion risks.
The Riparian Management Programme is a five-year project, started in 2021, to plant 630,000 riparian plants along waterways in the harbour catchment. It is jointly funded by Porirua City Council and Ministry for the Environment.
Key strategies include permanent stock exclusion fencing, revegetation, weed control, and collaboration between councils, Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangatira, and landowners, focusing on protecting waterways.
Which catchments does it cover?
Key catchments for management include Kākaho, Horokiri, Takapū, and Pāuatahanui, largely due to steep terrain and current land use.
About the dashboard
This dashboard records the live numbers of trees planted, the length of fences built, and areas planted. ArcGIS spatial mapping provides an interactive aerial image showing riparian planting progress in the sub-catchments of Te Awarua-o-Porirua Harbour.
The dashboard, which is best viewed on a desktop, can be found here
