NB Please note that donations made on this page go to Change.org to promote the petition. If you would like to make a donation directly to this cause, please click here

Dear Community

Honour the Maunga is a grassroots community group whose mission is to save 345 healthy, mature exotic trees on Ōwairaka / Mount Albert from being needlessly felled by Tūpuna Maunga Authority.  In all, the Authority plans to rid nearly 2500 exotic trees AND some native ones.  What happens on Ōwairaka / Mount Albert will affect all those trees too.

We have been fighting to save these trees since 11 November 2019.   Although the Authority plans to replace the trees with 13,000 native plants, most are low-growing species such as grasses and sedges.  The intended end result is largely bare, barren looking maunga with pockets of small plantings on the lower slopes.  The few native trees planted will take many decades to reach maturity.  We support the Authority's long-term vision of cloaking Auckland's maunga in native vegetation but the exotic trees should be left in place to provide shelter for the young native plantings while they grow. 

Aoteoroa's native trees are largely adapted for moist, forest floors and baby plants anywhere require being borne into a community of plant elders.  The loss of 345 mature trees is devastating to the community of humans, animals, plant and microbial life in and around Ōwairaka/Mount Albert for the following reasons: 

1. At the most basic level, this Maunga is walked daily by hundreds of people.  We have a heart and soul relationship to these trees and it grieves us to think they will be needlessly destroyed. 

2.  Global warming is HERE.  It is not a future event.  Only trees, grasslands and clean waterways can sequester carbon.  Every tree is needed!

3. The maunga is a thriving habitat for native birds and other wildlife.  Destroying their homes and habitats is a shocking violation of their right to life and the fragile ecosystem in which they live.

4. Ōwairaka / Mt Albert and her forest holds profound cultural and spiritual significance for people from all cultures and walks of life.  Destroying trees en masse does not honour these deep values. 

5. Disruption to soil, microbial life, existing root systems and the structural integrity of the mountain itself is dangerous.  

There is another way.  Plant the new native vegetation under the protective canopy of the mature elder trees.  Involve the community.  Celebrate the cultures and histories of this sacred land while allowing all life to receive the right to live.  Allow us all to help. 

Please don't kill trees - they are needed more than ever before.

To learn more or become more actively involved in Honour the Maunga, please visit our website or join our Facebook page. You can  sign up to our newsletter here.  You can also donate to support our tree-saving cause.