Kia ora,
This month we’re sharing our first Biome Trust Impact Report - highlighting the work we supported during the year ended 31 March 2026, and our learning along the way.
Rewilding Resources is an idea we keep coming back to. It starts from a simple truth: the Earth is not a resource, it is the source. Rewilding resources means returning capital to living systems, and to the people who safeguard them day in and day out.
What follows is a short walk through of our journey and what that looked like over the past year.
The people we work with
We’re honoured to have supported 18 organisations over the past financial year, many of them deep, multi-year partnerships, including The Learning Environment in Whanganui. Here more than 87,000 native trees have been grown and planted, and over 28,000 kg of kai has been shared with learners and the wider community since their inception.
Papawhakaritorito Trust created the Mana Wāhine Declaration for Hineahuone alongside Dr Vandana Shiva, and recently launched Seeding Hope, a ten-part interview series where Dr Jessica Hutchings talks with wāhine Māori growers, thinkers and healers about seed, soil and food sovereignty.
Toru Education celebrated ten years of hands-on learning across the Greater Wellington region, while Ruamāhanga Farm Foundation continued to find creative ways to weave young people into caring for our environment. The Centre for Strategic Philanthropy continues to bring New Zealand givers together, establishing two funds for children’s wellbeing and financial education.
A year of giving
In the year to 31 March 2026, Biome Trust Aotearoa gave NZ$1.1 million to 18 organisations, about a third more than the year before. More than 80% of that went to work that cares for the environment.
Across those gifts, we back capable leaders and give them room to lead, favouring long-term relationships with the people closest to the work. We’re willing to take risks by getting behind promising ideas early, even when they don’t fit neatly into conventional categories.
Continuing the learning journey alongside the people and kaupapa we get behind, we often support work grounded in a particular place, valuing lasting change as much as broad reach.
Close to home at Mangaroa
Through our wholly owned subsidiary, Mangaroa Farms, we continued to steward a 1,222-hectare charitable farm and living laboratory, providing a place to explore and practise approaches to land stewardship, regeneration, and learning.
Over the past 10 years, Mangaroa has grown from a single farm block into a thriving community project, and this year its first whole-farm ecological baseline showed some great metrics to continue the work from.
In FY26 alone:
8,500 native trees were planted
Traps removed 242 predators
48 families harvested their own kai from the market garden and permaculture orchard
Over 2,500 people came through the gate for events across the year
Out in the bush, a kiwi was recorded in the catchment for the first time in a century. It’s a small sign, but it’s one that tells us that the whenua is starting to answer back.
We also supported a collection of new initiatives highlighted below. Read more about the Mangaroa Farms journey in the recently released FY26 Impact Report.
Collective funding for community regeneration
Ma Earth also reached an important milestone during the year, becoming an independent charitable foundation based in Switzerland. Building on more than a decade of experience in grantmaking and land stewardship, it has continued to develop beyond Biome Trust. After the FY26 reporting period, it ran its third funding round — the first on its own platform — supporting nearly ten times the value of the previous round.
Funding Round 3 was the largest campaign of its kind.
Funding 201 global nature projects
Hosting 11,700+ global crowdfunding participants
Distributing $2.2M USD of resources
Supporting community-led projects across 56 countries
NZ Punching above its weight
26 New Zealand projects received more than $315K USD (NZ$536K) — the highest concentration of funded projects of any country on the platform. View all NZ Projects
Round 3 split roughly $1.2M USD matching pool and $1M USD crowdfunding, close to a dollar of new community funding for every philanthropic dollar. Matching pool partners included Naia Trust, Imaginal Seeds, and Biome Trust.
With immense gratitude
None of this happens on its own. It happens because of people out in the paddocks, classrooms and riverbeds doing the mahi, season after season. For us, rewilding resources simply means putting life back at the center. We’re grateful to walk alongside every one of you.
Be part of the journey
• Read the full impact report
• Meet our giftees
Below you’ll find our latest giftee updates and news from across the community.
Ngā mihi aroha,
Biome Trust
Giftee Updates
Papawhakaritorito Trust launched Seeding Hope, ten episodes of Dr Jessica Hutchings in kōrero with Māori women growers, thinkers and healers. More
Kōanga Institute released a 2027 calendar celebrating heritage corn with whakapapa in Aotearoa over 250 years. More
Kelmarna Gardens has secured a 20-year lease from the Waitematā Local Board and is asking neighbours what comes next. More
Kaicycle invites its community to verify four years of Hua Parakore mahi at a 14 November celebration in the māra. More
Ruamāhanga Farm Foundation joined South Wairarapa Biodiversity Group and Mountains to Sea for Huangarua planting and water testing at Martinborough Station. More
Rewiring Aotearoa has published a side-by-side rundown of every party’s energy policy ahead of the 7 November election. More
Organics Aotearoa released a Vote Organic election scorecard with five priority asks, beginning with the National Organic Standard. More
Roebuck Farm cuts pea shoots at morning harvest that reach New Plymouth stores within hours. More
Tīwaiwaka spent a week in wānanga with the Mangaroa Farms whānau, learning from the whenua and one another. More
UNDERGROUND Festival is hosted next year at Wholly Cow, 350 hectares of sheep and beef country, 10-11 March 2027. More
Wairarapa Earth School has chipped 33 cubic metres of prunings into soil-building mulch across four Wairarapa schools. More
Garden to Table ran a seedling sale across more than 90 schools, every dollar returning to that school’s programme. More
House of Science is a finalist in three 2027 Tauranga Business Award categories, including Industry Trailblazer. More
The Learning Environment has begun phase one of an indoor community hub at Pīwaiwaka Farm for hui, wānanga and classes. More
Permaculture in New Zealand is gathering a contingent for the Australasian Permaculture Convergence in April 2027, with no NZ hui planned for next year. More
Toru Education published its spring newsletter, carrying new beginnings at Mikimiki Forest School and upcoming workshops. More
4 A Better City is a People’s Choice finalist at the Wellington Airport Regional Community Awards; voting closes 2 November. More
Mangaroa Farms is opening a regenerative neighbourhood of up to eleven home sites, with proceeds reinvested into the project. More
Parihaka Papakāinga, a centre of nonviolent resistance at the foot of Taranaki Maunga, is one of DOC’s nine proposed World Heritage sites.
Additional News
The Department of Conservation named nine places for Aotearoa’s revised World Heritage Tentative List. More
Lincoln University and McCain Foods have added soil sensing to an eight-year regenerative potato trial on a 20-hectare demonstration farm. More
Predator Free New Zealand reports a thermal drone that can search 80 kilometres of coastline at night, spotting rats from twenty metres up. More
Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari marks 25 years of restoration with two more kākāpō and 122 Mahoenui giant wētā arriving on the maunga. More
