Taranaki: The Best Landscape to Restore Biodiversity Corridors 

With its fertile volcanic soils, reliable climate, and abundant rainfall, Taranaki’s rich biodiversity pockets are being revitalised through the dedicated work of groups and organisations restoring habitats and protecting native species.  

Once, Aotearoa was a fully connected landscape — a place where forests, wetlands, and coastal ecosystems flowed seamlessly from mountain to sea. Birds, insects, and plants moved freely, each part of a living network that supported and sustained itself.  

With human arrival and settlement, this connectivity began to change. Through cultivation, burning, and later urban and agricultural development, those continuous ecosystems became increasingly fragmented. The rich, living corridors that once tied the land together were gradually pulled apart — and with that, the movement and relationships of species were disrupted.  

In more recent past there have been important developments and meaningful efforts to restore these corridors. 

Forty percent of Taranaki is covered in native bush and shrubland, making the region especially well-suited to restoring these biodiversity corridors. The region’s rivers form natural, uninterrupted pathways from the maunga, across the ring plain, as well as large areas of untouched hill country that has been too steep to farm.  

Water quality management, in-stream habitat restoration, and community engagement and education are all key to helping these corridors thrive. 

Taranaki has led the way nationally in our riparian restoration, with extensive planting already completed along many streams and drains—meaning parts of the corridor network are already in place. 

Together, this combination of existing river networks, ongoing restoration work, and strong community and iwi involvement makes riverway corridors one of the most practical and effective ways to reconnect biodiversity across the region. 

We are excited to work with our members on this kaupapa and facilitate the creation of a cohesive approach to accelerate and amplify the collective impact of Wild for Taranaki members and wider community on the restoration of biodiversity corridors across Taranaki.