2025/26 Climate Resilient Communities Fund recipients

Mā te huruhuru, ka rere te manu — Only with feathers will the bird fly

In 2025, 75 applications requesting $2.8 million were received from groups across Te Taitokerau, each one a testament to the determination of our people to shape a resilient, sustainable future. In this second round, 23 projects have been granted funding for initiatives that will connect communities, build capacity, and strengthen our readiness for whatever lies ahead.

Food resilience (Te Kai) focuses on creating a low-carbon, sustainable and resilient regional food system in Northland, while fostering community and tangata whenua well-being and connection.

2025 recipients

Funding was granted for projects that create scalable infrastructure and economic pathways for local food growing, ensuring affordable, healthy kai and income for local producers. These initiatives build food sovereignty, reduce carbon miles transporting food, and lessen our reliance on supply chains bringing kai into Te Taitokerau, supply chains that are increasingly at risk from a changing climate.

Other funded projects support the revitalisation of traditional kai storage methods, embedding intergenerational knowledge and everyday resilience into our homes and communities. Alongside these are initiatives trialling new engagement models for both urban and rural settings and connecting stakeholders across Te Taitokerau to amplify collective impact in kai resilience mahi.

  • ōNuku Aotearoa – Toihuarangi “Regenerative Orchards”
  • Tree Born Forests - Food Forest “Seed Blocks” for communities
  • Āteanui Limited - Peruperu Rawa
  • Climate Change Taitokerau Trust - Food Web (Stage 2 Kai Strategy)
  • Te Kura o Ōmanaia - Te toitūtanga kai ki Ōmanaia
  • Whakaora Kai Food Rescue - Kai connections, sustainability and resilience
  • Maungatūroto Residents Association - Edible Village Project 
A graphic of a woman harvesting food near a tree and bird.

Water resilience (Te Wai) focuses on proactively addressing the challenges posed by increasing water scarcity in a changing climate, by taking practical steps to enhance water resilience.

2025 recipients

Funding has supported proactive approaches to water resilience, that strengthen local capacity, foster collaboration, and prioritise efficient, community-led solutions to water security, laying a strong foundation for climate adaptation in both rural and coastal environments.

  • Te Whānau a Te Hinetapu - Te Waiora o Pataua
  • He Kete Kai - He Kete Kai o Hokianga
Graphic of a man watering, a water tank and tap with bottle in background.

Energy resilience (Te Ngao) aims to enhance energy security while reducing greenhouse gas emissions across Te Taitokerau.

2025 recipients

The energy resilience projects funded in this round looked to visions of a solar resilience network, embedding energy resilience into the wider community through education, engagement and shared access. Infrastructure was funded to support climate adaptation planning in a remote community vulnerable to a changing climate, that also removed reliance on a diesel-powered water pump.

  • Owhata Marae - Solar Power Project
  • Dargaville Intermediate School - Energy Resilience Project
Graphic of a man holding a lightbulb with wind turbines and marae with solar panels in background.

Nature-based resilience looks to nature for solutions to build climate resilience, enhancing ecosystem resilience, regenerating food and farming systems, and sequestering carbon through forest, kelp or wetland restoration.

2025 recipients

Funding was granted for youth-led initiatives that are embedding ecological literacy and civic engagement into local adaptation planning, ensuring rangatahi play an active role in shaping our region’s climate-resilient future. Investments complement and extend previous funding for coastal restoration resources and action across Te Taitokerau, delivering culturally grounded resources and toolkits that support indigenous approaches to protecting coastal ecosystems and wāhi tapu.

  • WGHS, WBHS, WIS, WPS - Waiarohia Stream Community Engagement and Resilience
  • Morningside School - A Water Resilience Powerhouse in the Urban Jungle
  • Arawai Limited - Ōkokori Wetland and Forest Restoration for Climate Resilience
  • Haititaimarangai Marae 399 Trust - Tupehauora - Restoring Our Coastlines, Honouring Our Ancestors
  • Patuharakeke Te Iwi Trust - Takahiwai 9B Marae Stream and Wetland Restoration
Graphic of woman kneeling and planting near a bird and trees.

Planning for resilience empowers communities to build climate resilience through being well-informed and prepared, interpreting what we know and value most into a shared vision and action plan to build resilience.

2025 recipients

In this tranche, investment in youth engagement and participation has been a priority, supporting school-based climate programmes across Te Taitokerau, alongside initiatives that elevate Māori youth leadership. A mobile exhibition on climate impacts will also reach rural schools, offering a replicable model for wider community engagement. Additional projects focus on building capacity in regenerative food-growing practices and carbon sequestration, while others apply mātauranga Māori to monitor climate impacts, strengthening local knowledge systems and delivering practical environmental, social, and economic outcomes for the region.

  • Climate Club Aotearoa - Student Climate Action Workshops
  • Kaitaia Intermediate School – Climate Action Workshops
  • Ihirangi Trust - Te Aka Taiohi
  • Mangawhai Museum and Historical Society - Special Exhibition on Storms
  • PermaDynamics - Syntropic Agroforestry Research and Training
  • Te aho Taiao o Waimamaku - Te Mauri o te Taiao
Graphic of 3 people looking at a plan with houses in the background.
Related information