Hautapu Wetland Restoration

The restoration of Hautapu Swamp is already underway through a collaborative programme of work that combines practical restoration, long-term planning, and innovative funding solutions.

The first priority is completing a deer exclusion fence around the 12-hectare QEII National Trust covenant. This will protect one of the wetland's most ecologically significant areas from browsing, giving native vegetation the opportunity to regenerate naturally and creating a secure foundation for the first phase of restoration.

At the same time, the landowner and leasee are implementing an annual native planting programme within the covenant, steadily restoring the wetland with locally appropriate indigenous species.

To ensure restoration can continue well into the future, the Karamū River Catchment Collective is also investigating the site's eligibility for the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). If successful, carbon revenue could provide an ongoing funding stream to support long-term restoration and management in partnership with the landowner.

Alongside these initiatives, the Karamū River Catchment Collective is actively pursuing large-scale grant funding to accelerate and enable restoration across the wetland. This work is being strengthened through in-kind technical support from Landcare Trust, whose ecological expertise is helping guide restoration planning and ensure the project delivers lasting biodiversity outcomes.

Together, these actions are creating the foundations for the long-term recovery of one of Hawke's Bay's most significant remaining wetlands.

Hautapu Wetland is one of the last surviving remnants of an ancient landscape that once defined the Heretaunga Plains.

Thousands of years ago, the original Mangaroa Wetland formed part of an extensive inland peat swamp system covering an estimated 113,000 hectares, or around 10% of Hawke's Bay. Today, after decades of drainage, land development and the Napier earthquake, almost all of that wetland has disappeared. Hautapu, alongside places such as Lake Poukawa and Pekapeka, remains one of the few fragments left.

As Hawke's Bay's third largest remaining wetland, Hautapu plays a role in the health of the wider Karamū catchment. Healthy wetlands act as nature's kidneys, filtering sediment and nutrients from water before they reach our rivers, slowing floodwaters, recharging groundwater, and providing habitat for native birds, fish, insects, and plants that depend on these rare ecosystems.

Protecting Hautapu is about more than restoring what John calls his old swamp. It is about safeguarding an irreplaceable part of Hawke's Bay's natural heritage, strengthening the resilience of the Karamū catchment, and leaving future generations with a landscape that is richer, healthier, and more connected than the one we inherited.

The restoration of Hautapu Wetland is about securing the future of one of Hawke’s Bay’s largest remaining wetland systems through coordinated, long-term action.

At its core, the work is about giving this ecosystem the conditions it needs to recover and thrive. This begins with protecting the 12-hectare QEII covenant through the construction of a deer exclusion fence, ensuring that browsing pressure does not continue to suppress native regeneration.

From there, restoration moves into active recovery. The landowner and leasee are implementing an ongoing annual native planting programme within the covenant, gradually rebuilding the structure and function of the wetland using indigenous species suited to the site.

Alongside on-the-ground restoration, the Karamū River Catchment Collective is working to secure long-term funding pathways to support the project. This includes assessing eligibility for the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to create potential revenue for ongoing restoration, alongside pursuing large-scale grant funding to accelerate and sustain delivery.

This is supported by technical input from Landcare Trust, whose ecological expertise is helping guide restoration design and ensure the work is grounded in best practice and long-term ecological outcomes.

Together, these efforts bring landowners, funders, mana whenua, technical experts, and community partners into a shared approach ensuring Hautapu Wetland is not only protected, but given the best possible chance to recover as a functioning, resilient ecosystem.

Success at Hautapu Wetland looks like a living, resilient ecosystem that is actively recovering and able to sustain itself over time.

It begins with the 12-hectare QEII covenant fully protected from browsing pressure, allowing native vegetation to establish, regenerate, and mature without continual loss to deer. Over time, this protection enables a visible shift in the wetland structure from vulnerable and fragmented vegetation to a stable, self-reinforcing indigenous system.

It also looks like strong, healthy plant communities expanding across the site, supporting improved habitat for native birds, invertebrates, and freshwater species, and restoring the ecological function of the wetland.

A key aspiration is the return of high-value wetland specialists, including Australasian bittern (matuku), establishing Hautapu as a safe breeding and feeding ground within the Karamū catchment. There is also the opportunity for rare and sensitive wetland flora such as swamp nettle, alongside other nationally significant wetland species, to re-establish and thrive as conditions improve.

Alongside ecological restoration, success is also deeply social. It is about creating pathways for people to engage meaningfully with the taiao, including partnerships with organisations such as Project Patu that support people to build skills, confidence, and wellbeing through environmental work. It is also about strengthening the role of mana whenua in restoration, ensuring meaningful involvement in decision-making, delivery, and connection to place through active participation in the taiao.

Beyond this, success is landowners, leaseholders, mana whenua, and partners feeling proud of what has been achieved on the whenua, with a shared sense of stewardship and collective ownership of the restoration journey.

Financially and operationally, success includes a restoration model that is sustainable over time supported by a mix of funding pathways, including potential ETS revenue, grant funding, and ongoing partnerships that reduce the burden on any single party.

Ultimately, success is Hautapu Wetland functioning again as a healthy, connected part of the Karamū catchment—supporting biodiversity, strengthening community wellbeing, improving water resilience, and standing as a long-term example of what coordinated restoration can achieve.

This project is funded by the Karamū River Catchment Collective, with support from the Ministry for Primary Industries.

The landowner and leasee are also making meaningful ongoing contributions through an annual native planting programme and restoration commitment within the QEII covenant.

Additional in-kind support has been provided by Rotary, New Zealand Landcare Trust, Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, the Bittern Conservation Trust, Birds New Zealand, and the Department of Conservation. These partnerships offer expertise, labour, ecological guidance, and community support that collectively strengthen the success of the restoration programme.