The developers of the proposed Pukehina Eco Village in the Western Bay of Plenty are applying for resource consent to turn a 165 hectare dairy farm into a sustainable, ecologically friendly, lifestyle village and wetland. The farm was originally developed by draining “swamp”,  a now depleted ecosystem type.  Most of that land will now be returned to wetlands to provide freshwater wetland habitat for birds like the critically endangered Matuku.

The farm, which sits immediately behind the beach settlement, is zoned rural. The landscape architect involved in the project, Richard Hart, says the eco village and wetlands concept is “innovative and ambitious” for New Zealand. “It’s a major scale land use change and habitat reconstruction project,” he told Landscape Architecture Aotearoa. “We’re talking about moving over two million cubic metres of material within the site, creating 35 hectares of lake, and over 100 hectares of wetland.”

Hart says the biggest challenge is managing hydrology. “Controlling water levels and having a source of freshwater coming in from an existing perched canal is critical. We prefer to have a fresh water system because the Bay of Plenty is down to less than three percent of the original freshwater wetland habitat. That is 97% has gone. This project will make a significant addition to that - 140 hectares is a big, almost unheard of scale, wetland for a private development.”

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