A project to clean up Te Hoiere/Pelorus River faces an uncertain future. Photo: Supplied/ LDR - Marlborough Express
The future of some core environmental projects, one described by the mayor as a "community movement", hang in the air as funding starts to dry up.
Marlborough was given $37.4 million to fund six projects until 2027 as part of the previous government's $1.12 billion Jobs for Nature Programme, in May 2020.
Marlborough District Council environmental manager Alan Johnson told a recent environment and planning meeting that the funding was used to build on projects in the region.
Some projects included the Te Hoiere/Pelorus catchment restoration project, catchment care for "at-risk" catchments, the Marlborough hill country erosion programme and the national wilding conifer control programme.
"It has been a massive benefit to this council, and the community and the sectors," Johnson said.
But moving forward, funding for the programmes would decrease.
"It means that we have to adapt and scale up or scale down, depending on the level of funding that we've got for these programmes.
"As we scale down programmes, there is probably a few staff on fixed term contracts, and some of those contacts finish in due course."
The wilding conifer programme, for example, was down to about $1m a year in funding, which was "not sustainable".
"Given that a substantial amount of the money was managing that national wilding conifer programme, funding for that has slipped back quite immensely," he said.
"There's a whole lot of advocacy going on in a national scene, a whole lot of workshops and the ministry have been told to look at revisiting the strategy and revisit funding options going forward for that programme."
Wilding pines in the Awatere Valley, Marlborough. Photo: Supplied/ LDR - Marlborough Express
The main "funding deed" for the Te Hoiere project would finish at the end of the current financial year, however there was some unspent funding.
People involved with the project had met with biosecurity minister Andrew Hoggard to encourage him to extend the funding deed into 2025-26.
Te Hoiere Project programme manager Rachel Russell - sharing the project's latest annual report with the council - said in her discussion with Hoggard, she tried to point out that projects like Te Hoiere were "not always straightforward".
"If people have got other priorities then it's not necessarily something that they're going to jump on board with straight away - it takes time to build relationships," she said.
Significant milestones had included a new native plant nursery, led by Ngāti Kuia, now producing about 200,000 seedlings a year, the sixth year of the Te Hoiere Bat Recovery Project, wetland restoration, monitoring and research of fish species, new fencing and native tree planting, and pest control.
Moana Smith during a Te Hoiere Project planting, in 2023. Photo: LDR/ Supplied
"In the short term, we've got a number of KPI that we've got to meet," Russell said.
"But in this time we're also planning for the next phase of this Te Hoiere project. We have a number of partners who have already contributed a lot and are also keen to see things continue.
"A big part of what I'm going to be helping to support the trust with, is understanding those key priorities and what the projects are that we want to see done in the long term.
"We're having conversations on a semi-regular basis, with not only our funders, but talking to ministers and trying to build those relationships to put out how important that work is and how much it supports other work that is happening, and hopefully find some support through Government."
Marlborough mayor Nadine Taylor acknowledged that the Te Hoiere project had been built from the ground up.
"What you have actually built is a community movement, a force for good in that catchment," Taylor said.
"Government funding does ebb and flow, but the goodwill and the desire of the community to do better and to do well and to drive good outcomes doesn't change."
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.