Hinewai Reserve, Banks Peninsula
Forest Type - Indigenous
Annual Carbon Removals
2,710 tCO2 annual removals
Start Date - 1993
Project Type - Reforestation
546 hectares
Standard - ETS Permanent Category (PP89)
Hinewai Reserve is a 1,420-hectare ecological restoration project on the southeastern sector of Banks Peninsula east of Akaroa in the South Island of New Zealand. The Maurice White Native Forest Trust owns and manages the land, with the goal of regenerating native forest and fostering indigenous biodiversity.
The project is led by botanist and naturalist Hugh Wilson, under a management philosophy of natural regeneration and minimal interference with natural processes and succession. Nurse canopy species include both native colonisers (mainly kānuka and bracken) and naturalised introduced ones (mainly gorse and broom). Planting of any species is not part of the restoration process on the Reserve.
The Reserve includes two main valleys above Ōtānerito (Long Bay) and Ōpatoti (Stony Bay). About 4% of the area is old-growth native forest (chiefly red beech but also containing four podocarp species – tōtara, thin-barked tōtara, kahikatea and mataī). The remainder is a mosaic of regenerating native forest in various stages of succession that involves several successional pathways. Management focuses on removing or reducing human-caused elements deleterious to the natural regeneration, e.g. grazing and browsing mammals, frequent fires and the control of a few exotic plant species considered to be long-term competitors against native biota.
Around 350 native plant species are documented on the Reserve and 240 naturalised exotic species, of which only a few require active human control. Thirty-five native bird species (plus 18 naturalised exotics) have been recorded on the Reserve, along with a wide diversity of native lizards, fish and invertebrates.
Hinewai Reserve is open to the public free of charge, and it includes a network of some 25 kilometres of walking tracks. Revenue from the sale of carbon credits is significant to the success of this project and provides a fund for the purchase of additional land to extend the Reserve.
You can find further information on the Hinewai website or watch the documentary Fools and Dreamers.
Some pictures below come from the Hinewai website.
