A community-led restoration plan has been finalised for the Motuweka Havelock Estuary, funded through Te Hoiere Project. Now, the biggest barrier to actioning the plan is funding.
The plan prioritises restoration activities into immediate, medium-term, and long-term actions. These range from low-cost planting projects to more involved, co-ordinated responses to sea-level rise. Priorities also take in account readiness, expected ecological return, and how likely they are to succeed.
The community has made significant progress to improve freshwater over the past few years through improved land management, says Te Hoiere Programme Manager Rachel Russell.
“The biggest impact on the estuary is sediment, which comes from a number of human activities and natural processes from all of the sub-catchments. That has been our focus over the past few years, and sediment will continue to be our focus upstream. This new plan is the first piece of work that we’ve undertaken to look at restoring the catchment’s receiving environment, and we now have a detailed roadmap,” Mrs Russell says.
This planning began in late 2024, when consultants with Solucom and Salt Ecology were engaged to work alongside the community for restoration planning of the Motuweka Havelock Estuary. This included identifying the main issues, guided by the estuary's cultural, social, economic and ecological values. The first stage of planning was a collaboration involving Ngāti Kuia, Rangitāne o Wairau, Department of Conservation, Marlborough Marine Farm Association, Port Marlborough, Marlborough District Council, and the Havelock community.
Nature can’t be restored without people, says Matt Hippolite of Solucom, who organised the huis.
“We have created this problem, and we are the only ones who can put it back together. When people connect to restoring nature, they end up restoring themselves at the same time. Ecological restoration is a great focal point to restore social connections,” Mr Hippolite says.
“Participants were asked about aspects they wanted to see return here over time, as well as aspects they wanted to see preserved, enhanced and elevated in importance for the restoration plan,” Mr Hippolite says.
Salt Ecology’s Leigh Stevens has been monitoring the health of the estuary for Marlborough District Council for 20 years, looking at habitats such as seagrass, salt marshes and the intertidal flats. Changes in habitats tell us what’s going on with changes in the catchment, Mr Stevens says.
“Most of the changes that occur in the estuary happen as a consequence of inputs coming in from further up in the catchment. Land use change and natural occurrences that release fine sediment eventually end up in the estuary,” he says.
“The estuary has been muddy for 150 years since the first clearing of the hillsides. The change in habitats have changed what lives here, with an increase in Pacific oyster beds and decrease in valuable seagrass,” Mr Stevens says.
Seagrass is a positive indicator of estuary health. Since 2014, 21 hectares of seagrass have been lost in Motuweka/Havelock. In 2024, only 1.1 hectares remained, of which 97% of remaining seagrass had less than 50% cover.
Improving estuary health will take a multi-pronged approach, Mr Stevens says.
“Success will take time. It’s having all of the ecological parts functioning well, alongside a community that understands and helps to protect its resilience. Success is also clear waters, increasing bird and marine life, and the eventual restoration of the lowland coastal forest,” Mr Stevens says.
Read the restoration plan here
