Who We Are

Kaupapa
About

Who We Are

Restore Hibiscus & Bays is a community-led initiative that aims to bring together, support and grow the network of bush groups, projects, neighbourhoods, individuals, schools, businesses and other organisations working to eradicate pests, restore native habitats and improve water quality across the Hibiscus & Bays Local Board area.

We follow Te Ao Māori principles to foster guardianship, care and respect for our local environment in order to restore it back to health.

Our mahi is supported by funding grants from the Hibiscus & Bays Local Board and Auckland Council, and we are part of the East Coast Bays Community Project which has charitable status. We welcome and value sponsorship from other organisations, businesses and individuals interested in partnering with a local organisation that works at the heart of our community.

Our Vision for Hibiscus & Bays

Nature is healthy and our native species are flourishing. Our communities value nature and are empowered to work together to keep it healthy. Our mahi is innovative and connected to the vision for thriving nature across the Auckland region.

We have three strategic focus areas: predator eradication, pest plant control and stream restoration.

In Hibiscus and Bays, there are multiple community volunteer groups and projects that have been restoring native habitats for decades through removing weeds, suppressing predators and planting native species. Restore Hibiscus & Bays is keen to facilitate a shift within our community-based strategy towards coordinated and connected landscape-scale restoration. We plan to follow the natural divide of the landscape and pursue a catchment-based approach, as the ecosystems throughout each catchment are linked by water flowing into the rivers and streams and eventually down to our beaches and into the Hauraki Gulf – Tīkapa Moana/Te Moana-nui-ā-Toi.

Our catchment-wide programmes for predator eradication, pest plant control and stream restoration are mutually beneficial. A significant reduction in predators and pest plants throughout our catchments will benefit habitat regeneration efforts in important riparian areas. This will in turn help to better connect native biodiversity across our significant ecological areas (SEAs) and other fragmented native ecosystems.