Pohewa Pae Tawhiti

What are we doing? E aha ana mātou?

Land owners, stewards and managers need more comprehensive support when making land-use change decisions. Land-use diversification is expensive, and decisions are difficult to reverse in the short term.

Pohewa Pae Tawhiti (Visualising Horizons) is a collaboration with Te Arawa Arataua to develop a guided process for decision-makers to compare their current situation with land-use alternatives, based on tikanga and mātauranga Māori combined with innovative tools, models, and the most extensive data sets available.

Crucial factors such as the landowners’ principles, values, aspirations, and priorities for their land are being incorporated into the framework so that land-use change options support their vision.

The research team includes key members from Te Arawa Arataua who are working on the ground with a Te Arawa farming entity to test and develop the project framework. This framework will then be tested with other iwi and a corporate farming body.

Pohewa Pae Tawhiti is closely aligned with the Land Use Opportunities – Whitiwhiti Ora programme, linking to datasets on alternative land uses, climate, and biophysical data that will help support land-use diversification assessments.

Matatau Whenua, a project associated with Pohewa Pae Tawhiti, investigates how tikanga, kōrero pūrākau and other forms of cultural knowledge can be incorporated into land use decision-making in managed landscapes. It is empowering whenua Māori landowners and decision-makers to make informed, culturally grounded land-use decisions by providing them with the Matatau Whenua Guidelines. These guidelines offer a clear, structured process for incorporating traditional Māori knowledge, or mātauranga, into decision-making. By guiding users through three phases and nine stages, we ensure that historical and ancestral knowledge is thoroughly considered, helping to shape the future of the whenua in a way that honors its past.