Supporting the recovery from Cyclone Gabrielle
Following the devastating impact of Cyclone Gabrielle in February 2023, Te Tumu Paeroa continued its response to the effects of the cyclone and other adverse weather events experienced by Te Tairāwhiti, Hawke’s Bay and Wairarapa regions this year.
We established a project to coordinate engagement with tenants, owners, trustees and stakeholders and assess remediation work on whenua.
While initial in-field inspections were put on hold in June 2023 due to ongoing weather events, work continued on the desktop assessment of more than 1,300 whenua Māori blocks, including whenua administered by the Māori Trustee, as well as unadministered land blocks where the Māori Land Court had appointed the Māori Trustee as agent to enable the inspection and assessment of damage.
Mangatuna 21, post-cyclone
Te Tumu Paeroa received a grant from the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) to complete the desktop assessment of more than 1,000 land blocks. Using specific post-cyclone geospatial information systems (GIS) layers, individual reports were completed by December 2023.
Reports for unadministered whenua Māori blocks will be shared with the Māori Land Court for owners. Throughout this period, Te Tumu Paeroa continued to work with tenants to understand the extent of the damage and, where possible, support remediation work.
In November 2023, Te Tumu Paeroa was successful in accessing funding from the Whenua Māori Sediment and Debris Management and Woody Debris Removal Fund administered by Te Puni Kōkiri to assist with the remediation of 182 Māori Trustee administered land blocks impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle. The funding was available until June 2024.
By March 2024, through the funding from Te Puni Kōkiri, Te Tumu Paeroa had been able to support remediation work on 31 whenua Māori blocks and is continuing to work with more than 100 others to support restoration work. A total of 44 land blocks were assessed as not requiring remediation support. This was partly due to erosion damage or where access to the land block was deemed unsafe, restricting onsite assessment. For other blocks, some self-restoration had already occurred on the whenua, enabling lessees to resume normal operations.
More than 145 site visits were undertaken by our kaimahi to assess completed remediation work and support the scheduling of remaining work enabling whenua to be restored back to a productive state for owners.
Many Māori land trusts do not have the funds to address the damage caused by the North Island weather events and so the support received from the Whenua Māori Sediment and Debris Management and Woody Debris Removal Fund has been hugely important.
Understanding the impact that extreme weather events such as Cyclone Gabrielle have on the whenua and communities will inform future response plans.