Press Release
Ngāti Porou are at the heart of sustainable land use
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August 2026
The recent focus on forestry needs to give voice to the Ngāti Porou communities at the centre of the issue. As the substantial landowner and interest holders of the region Ngāti Porou are the people to be leading these conversations and the solutions. Regulation is a blunt, single solution that ignores the reality on the ground and seeks to penalise without addressing or resolving the core issues.
Ngāti Porou have a deep and enduring connection to the land, rivers and sea, and are a major contributor to the regional economy. We are in a unique position where collectively as an iwi we still own and manage much of our own lands.
The land base in our iwi boundary is a significant area of around 400,000ha or 3.5% of the North Island
45% of land in Ngāti Porou is Māori Free hold Title and 16% is Conservation Estate / Redress
By way of settlement Te Runanganui o Ngāti Porou Group own over 28,000 hectares of Forestry land (Crown Forest Licenses and other)
49% of the population are Māori in Gisborne Region, and 75% within Ngāti Porou Tribal Rohe
We are the second largest iwi by population nationally and the largest with a Treaty Settlement.
There is the larger focus of land use in the rohe and there are various areas that are not sustainable, Ngāti Porou want to see a strategic and fair plan that will ensure:
We make a choice where forestry should remain and how it will be managed.
Ngāti Porou Landowners themselves are enabled to lead how and where land use transition takes place.
Ngāti Porou people are not hurt or penalised by reactionary regulation.
We are working positively with council and the Crown to strengthen our partnerships and strategic initiatives, including:
Waiapu Koka Huhua – The Waiapu Accord –developing a long-term plan to estore the Waiapu catchment for healthy land, healthy water, healthy people and a resilient local economy. This begins to deliver on the Crown promise to restore the catchment made in 2012 when we settled our Ngati Porou Treaty Claim.
Rural Growth Partnership – formalising a strategic relationship with an immediate focus on spatial planning to make strategic land use decisions to ensure Ngāti Porou prosperity and well-being.
We still have a long way to go as a region to ensure the right trees are in the right place. This is a complex economic, policy and environmental problem that has shaped the rohe for decades and needs a mature and nuanced conversation about the:
Regional and national economic reliance on forestry
Resource Management tools and mechanisms to support Ngati Porou aspiration.
Emissions Trading Scheme policy settings that shut down options for Ngāti Porou to transition.
Time and resources needed to be able to transition and restore our taiao.
Crown Forestry Licence process and obligations of the Government to Ngati Porou redress.
Impact on Ngāti Porou communities, whānau, hapu, landowners and our whenua.
Te Runanganui o Ngāti Porou CEO, Henare Walker says "We are ready to lead our region through this challenge. We ask the Crown to remain committed to working with us to deliver a workable plan for our region and to the intention of our Treaty Settlement which saw the return of much of this land".
