Papamoa Whenua Resilience

• Goal: $2 million USD (two-year seed phase)

• Critical Outcomes:

  • Ecological Restoration: Large-scale reforestation, wetland repair, and erosion control in the Papamoa and Bay of Plenty region.
    
    

  • Energy & Food Innovation: Implementation of solar agro-voltaic systems integrating agriculture with renewable energy.
    
    

  • Māori Leadership Development: Capacity-building programs for Māori landowners and trusts to strengthen kaitiakitanga (guardianship) and economic independence.
    
    

  • Community Livelihoods: Sustainable employment and food security across multiple hapū and iwi networks, directly improving wellbeing for hundreds of families.
    
    

  • Policy & Systems Change: New models of regenerative governance prioritising Mauri (life force) over extraction.
    

• Aligned: Papamoa Whenua Resilience is grounded in place, relational, inclusive, and ready to explore KinHub development.
  The communities and organisations engaged are inspired and inspiring — modelling healthy, reciprocal ways of engaging with whenua.

• This KinHub seeks collective awareness of our STREAM, and materials to strengthen Indigenous organisations’ connection to nature, people, and bioregional balance.

• Ngāti Ranginui, Māori Elder • Guardian of Indigenous Commons

• Jason Jacobs is a Māori leader and founding Guardian of Indigenous Commons. His work bridges policy, spiritual ecology, and Indigenous innovation across Aotearoa. Through Te Mana Consortium, Jason convenes a collective of Māori trusts, researchers, and community leaders designing regenerative systems that unite mātauranga Māori (ancestral knowledge) with contemporary technology.

“When we listen to the land, we hear both memory and instruction.
The whenua will always tell us what it needs — if we quiet our thinking long enough to feel it.”
— Jason Jacobs

• Papamoa Whenua Resilience is a community-driven initiative focused on restoring ecological balance and fostering Indigenous land stewardship in the Bay of Plenty bioregion.

• By integrating mātauranga Māori with modern regenerative science, the project revitalises wetlands, strengthens food security, and designs sustainable economic systems that honour Māori cosmology — returning health to the land and dignity to its people.

• At its heart lies the teaching of wairua (spirit) and mauri (life force): that the wellbeing of people, ecosystems, and economies are one continuum.

• A two-year community engagement and implementation project will:

  • Map a Regenerative Blueprint: Identify ecological restoration priorities — reforestation, wetland regeneration, and erosion control — integrating mātauranga Māori and modern data systems.
    

  • Install Solar Agro-voltaic Systems: Combine renewable energy with sustainable agriculture to achieve food sovereignty and reduce carbon impact.
    

  • Develop Communal Dwellings and Food Hubs: Create living spaces embodying wairua, integrating housing, food production, and land care to promote community health and connection.
    

  • Empower Māori Leadership: Deliver training in sustainable land management, renewable energy, and regulatory navigation for Māori landowners and youth.
    

  • Advance Policy Change: Advocate for government frameworks that prioritise Mauri and Indigenous governance — moving beyond short-term “development” toward intergenerational balance.
    
    

• This investment will not only heal the whenua but generate new livelihoods, enhance climate resilience, and restore pride in mātauranga Māori as the foundation of sustainable nationhood.

• To achieve its highest aims, Te Mana Consortium — the umbrella body coordinating Papamoa Whenua Resilience — requires:

  • Stronger Māori Trust Capacity: Removing financial and regulatory barriers that prevent Māori trusts from implementing regenerative ventures.
    

  • Layered Support Systems (Tautoko): Mentorship, access to finance, and technical expertise for Māori-led initiatives.
    

  • Policy Advocacy Infrastructure: Coordinated efforts to reform land, water, and energy regulations in alignment with kaitiakitanga.
    

  • “Clean Hands” Development Protocols: Ensuring all projects protect Mauri and are grounded in Indigenous ethics, not extractive metrics.

• The Bay of Plenty is one of Aotearoa’s most productive and ecologically sensitive coastal regions — home to wetlands, estuaries, and volcanic soils that sustain rich biodiversity and Māori communities.
  Yet human pressures — coastal development, deforestation, pollution, and erosion — threaten its balance and the health of Papamoa’s whenua.

• According to New Zealand’s Science Learn resources, the region faces growing challenges from urban expansion, nutrient runoff, and habitat degradation — undermining both ecological and community wellbeing.

• Papamoa Whenua Resilience directly responds to these challenges by re-establishing Indigenous ecological governance and building regenerative infrastructure that can be replicated across other regions of Aotearoa.

• Led by Te Mana Consortium, the initiative collaborates with Māori and underserved communities to combine ancestral practices with contemporary innovation.
  Its work follows the principle:

• “The mahi begins by listening. What health does the whenua need? From that understanding, we blend Indigenous insight and technology to restore balance.”

• Through co-design and consensus processes, the project ensures that decisions about land and water stay in the hands of those whose whakapapa (genealogy) originates there.

• Te Mana Consortium addresses:

  • Inadequate Sustainable Infrastructure and limited funding for community-driven conservation.
    

  • Transactional Economic Systems that privilege profit over Mauri.
    

  • Colonial Land Fragmentation that still limits Māori autonomy and stewardship.
    

  • Outdated Regulations (e.g., the Resource Management Act 1991) prioritising development over long-term land health.
    

  • Land-Use Uncertainty undermining investment in Indigenous-led regenerative management.
    
    

• By fostering collaboration, amplifying Indigenous leadership, and creating policy pathways, Papamoa Whenua Resilience transforms these obstacles into opportunities for a just, biocultural renaissance in Aotearoa.

• Environmental Regeneration

  • Restoration of wetlands, forests, and coastal ecosystems across Papamoa and the Bay of Plenty.
    

  • Improved biodiversity, water quality, and climate resilience through large-scale ecological repair.
    

• Social & Economic Renewal

  • Creation of sustainable livelihoods and training opportunities for Māori youth and landowners.
    

  • Strengthened community cohesion through shared food, housing, and energy systems.
    

  • Revitalised kaitiakitanga and whakapapa, reconnecting people to ancestral lands.
    

• Cultural & Spiritual Revitalisation

  • Re-centering mātauranga Māori as the guiding framework for modern sustainability.
    

  • Enhanced collective wellbeing through reconnection with whenua, wairua, and community purpose.
    

• Papamoa Whenua Resilience thrives on whakapapa — the interconnection of people, land, and the cosmos.

• Key collaborators include:

  • Academic Partners: Lincoln University, Canterbury University, and Innoventum (Sweden) for renewable technology research.
    

  • Government Agencies: Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and MBIE for policy alignment.
    

  • Indigenous Organisations: Whenua Oho, hapū, and iwi networks bringing local leadership.
    

  • Private Sector Allies: Ethical collaborations with entities such as Tyson Foods (research only) and the Mubadala Foundation to scale regenerative infrastructure.
    

• Together, these partners enact a shared vision: Mauri Mo Te Ao — life force for all beings.

• Papamoa Whenua Resilience embodies the Coherence and GrandFathering principles of the GrandMothering Economy — grounding visionary technology in ancestral guardianship.

• It demonstrates that balance is built through relationship: between soil and solar, data and story, Indigenous governance and planetary responsibility.
  By uniting ecological restoration with spiritual renewal, it offers a living model of how prosperity can once again mean the thriving of land and people together.

“The GrandMothering Economy in Aotearoa flows through whenua —
when the land breathes again, so do we.”
— Jason Jacobs, Te Mana Consortium