April 2026 project update

April began with news that we have attained charity status, the final piece in our transition to a new entity! Huge thanks to our Secretary Matt Wardle for achieving this outcome for us.

Following along the lines of new beginnings, after 18 months in the making, we have begun the new Tradescantia Beetle biocontrol experiment in partnership with iwi, Wilson School students and teachers, Auckland Council, Upper Harbour Local Board and Kaipatiki Local Board. School students with disabilities volunteer fortnightly at Te Hōnonga a Iwi to offer service to their local community.

We acknowledge people with disabilities or neurodiversity are met with unnecessary barriers to participate in climate mitigation and adaptation, limiting their ability to invest in ways they wish to in nature and society. The loss of their unique knowledge, skills, innovative solutions, and passion for nature within our community comes at a time when the world needs everyone to undertake climate action. There is no excuse for limiting investment of people's strengths to support conservation, biodiversity development and the regeneration of Te Taiao. Disabled people carry the highest risk of climate change harm. They have a right to fully participate in leveraging climate action and invest in nature.

Wilson School students volunteer their time and work hard to build skills and knowledge to promote nature-based solutions enabling us to increase individual, community, ecosystem, organisational and planetary health and wellbeing. Their ways of knowing foster innovation at our place. At a time when mounting global systemic pressures could be reductive, Wilson Students find solutions and promote a culture of resilience and creativity. These are prized traits we recognise as essential to our success. 

Having the chance to partner with iwi, Wilson School and the council to generate improved bioorganic solutions for suppressing or eradicating pest plants and animals will build our capability to limit incumbent and future risks to endemic species and potentially reduce the need to use commercial poisons across the rohe to manage exotic species incursions.

Wilson School students are also presenting their desire to grow tomatoes and chillies to increase food security for the local community to a funding panel managing the new Auckland Council Disability and Climate Adaptation Pilot fund. Te Hōnonga a Iwi is partnering with Wilson School with this pilot and looks forward to supporting young people with disabilities to achieve their vision. We are also fortunate to be welcoming Takapuna Grammar students who are coming to connect with Wilson School peers on a fortnightly basis this term.

Gheetu James and Madi Sexton, our new, inaugural voluntary Te Hōnonga a Iwi Environmental Science interns from AUT, joined us this month to invest up to 20 hours per week into regenerating nature. Extraordinary service to the future on both their parts. Geethu is undertaking her Masters and Madi, is in the final months of her undergraduate degree. Both have a passion for freshwater quality. Some of their focus areas include completing the plant pest mapping, supporting new student leaders to undertake fresh water quality (FWQ) monitoring, devising a FWQ monitoring plan and developing a Take One for Nature Campaign to support local businesses to invest in regenerating Te Taiao, increase organisational resilience and green the BDU. We welcome them both and look forward to supporting their mahi.

Download the full report for April 2026.