Karioi Project
Focused on Karioi’s coastal forests, cliffs, and adjacent marine habitats between Aotea and Whāingaroa Harbours, the Karioi Project works to protect biodiversity across the Whāingaroa landscape.
Through active conservation, the team engages communities, provides environmental education, and builds sustainable partnerships. Restoring biodiversity from the mountain to the sea, the Karioi Project inspires the Raglan community to stand up for nature, and protect the places we love by turning the tide on biodiversity loss and successfully rewilding our corner of the world.
A special focus of the project is the Ōi / Grey-faced Petrel (Northern Muttonbird), a taonga species found in remnant breeding sites along the Karioi coastline. After years of trapping, bait stations, and hard mahi, the first ōi chicks fledged in 2017, with the 50th chick successfully hatching in 2023.
Founded in 2004, Te Whakaoranga o Karioi (TWoK) combines community predator-trapping ambitions with employment and education opportunities. TWoK chair Malibu Hamilton joined forces with current Karioi Project manager Kristel van Houte in 2008 to establish trapping on public conservation land.
By 2009, locals had set up a 60-trap network targeting rats at Upper Wainui Reserve. The following year, the Bryant Memorial Scenic Reserve was added, with trap lines later extending through Wainui Reserve and along to Whale Bay.
Since then, the project has grown to include after-school and education programmes and a holiday programme for local tamariki. For home-based trappers, the Backyard Hub offers traps for sale or loan, helping locals get started in their own backyards.
Today, tracks have been cut across Karioi by teams of hapū and community members, with thousands of traps managed by volunteers. Thanks to their ongoing mahi, our mainland seabird colony is growing and the forest is alive with birdsong once more.