[Excerpt from Greg Hurrell, Business Desk]
Anyone who has driven from Hamilton to Tauranga, or through the Karangahake Gorge between Paeroa and Waihī, has been through the Kaimāī Range. It forms a barrier between the Bay of Plenty and Waikato regions and is a mix of native forest with tramping tracks and huts, pasture land and plantation forest.
In recent years, the Manaaki Kaimāī Mamaku trust has received millions of dollars in public funding to restore native forest and manage animal and plant pests in and around the range.
The trust’s chief executive officer, Louise Sanders, says those days are over and it’s time for businesses to step in and help pay for the ecosystems their profits depend on.
Image credit: Rebecca Lee
