Background

O Tātou Ngāhere - Our Forest was launched in 2021 as a dynamic communications campaign focussed on the economic, environmental and socio-cultural benefits of native forests, as well as ensuring they have a significant role in New Zealand’s national forest strategy. The project is a collaboration between Pure Advantage and the foresters and scientists of Tāne’s Tree Trust, who champion the valuable role our native species can play in the future of forestry in Aotearoa New Zealand.

An overarching goal of the campaign is to influence a mindset shift from a perception of native forests being an unproductive land-use, to where they are seen as a valuable use of land that every landowner integrates into their best practice land management.

O Tātou Ngāhere - Our Forest is being promoted to a wide range of target audiences with the aim to give native forestation a higher profile, as well as debunk misinformation and make a stronger case for planting more native trees. Link to O Tātou Ngāhere https://pureadvantage.org/o-tatou-ngahere/

O Tātou Ngāhere national conference

A major focus over 2022 was organising the national conference – Regenerating our landscape with native forest, a partnership between Tāne’s Tree Trust and Pure Advantage. The conference, held at Te Papa in Wellington in October 2022, had an attendance of more than 1000. By some margin this was the largest forestry conference ever held in New Zealand. The participants were highly cosmopolitan, including ministers of the crown, industry leaders, iwi, scientists, farmers, members of the public, environmentalists, and secondary and tertiary students.

The two-day programme focused on weaving more native forest back into our working lands. In the 23 years since the first conference held by Tāne’s Tree Trust, the main objectives of the trust continue, albeit with some shifts in priorities. One theme in particular has attained a degree of urgency – the climate crisis. The interaction between climate change and our forests dominated the discussions. It was central to the addresses by two ministers, the Climate Change Commission and various other speakers. There were two international speakers and some international attendees who attended online, with a few making the trip to New Zealand.

For more information including conference presentations visit https://www.otatoungahereconference.org.nz/