One of the participants in the Department of Conservation's latest two-day workshop designed to improve the management of hapu and iwi-led conservation projects says it was a valuable exercise.
The series of workshops, which are the first of their kind in New Zealand, aim to help Maori increase their conservation knowledge and range of skills and give them access to sophisticated GIS mapping software.
John Rabarts, from Ngati Porou ki Hauraki on the Coromandel Peninsula, attended this week's workshop in Huntly.
He says he really appreciated the interactive nature of the workshop, which was similar to the wananga process of learning.
Mr Rabarts says he works in environmental programmes to control pests such as possums, stoats, weasels and rats, as well as in fisheries conservation.
He found the workshop very useful in helping him refocus on the processes necessary, to run his programmes successfully.
