Farming for 100 years, not just the next season

At  Whāngārā Farms, conversations about the future are increasingly stretching beyond the next season, the next payout, or even the next decade. Through He Rau Ake Ake, the organisation’s 100-Year Whenua Optimisation Plan, a different type of thinking is being intentionally embedded into the way decisions are made across the whenua. It is one that asks not only what is productive today, but what will sustain people, land, culture, and opportunity for generations to come.  

Developed alongside whānau, shareholders, technical experts and partners including the Ministry for Primary Industries through the Māori Agribusiness Climate Programme, He Rau Ake Ake was created to provide long-range direction across more than 8,000 hectares of whenua. Importantly, the kaupapa was never framed as simply an environmental strategy or a farming document. It was designed as a holistic roadmap that balances production, biodiversity, cultural values, climate resilience and intergenerational wellbeing together.  

That distinction is very important for this kaupapa. 

Across Aotearoa, conversations about land use are becoming increasingly polarised. Productive land is often discussed in opposition to environmental restoration, and economic performance is frequently separated from cultural or social outcomes. Yet for many Māori landowners, those distinctions have never fully existed. The long-term health of the whenua and the long-term wellbeing of the people connected to it have always been intertwined. 

He Rau Ake Ake attempts to operate within that reality. 

The plan brings together expertise in biodiversity management, land-use optimisation, livestock systems, afforestation planning, evaluation frameworks and cultural mapping, while also grounding the work in local aspirations and whakapapa connections to the land. The process acknowledged that climate change, market volatility and environmental pressures are not future issues - they are current realities that require coordinated, evidence-based responses now.  

What makes the kaupapa distinctive is not necessarily that Whāngārā Farms has all the answers. Rather, it is the willingness to approach complexity honestly and to think beyond short-term cycles. 

In practical terms, this means asking difficult questions: 

These are not abstract questions. They influence everyday operational decisions, investment priorities and future planning. 

Importantly, the kaupapa also reflects a broader shift occurring across Māori agribusiness.  

Increasingly, Māori landowners are demonstrating that long-horizon thinking is not incompatible with commercial discipline. In many cases, it strengthens it. Long-term resilience depends on healthy soils, functioning ecosystems, capable people, strong governance and communities that remain connected to place. 

This way of thinking challenges the idea that success can only be measured in annual outputs or short-term returns. Instead, it asks whether the whenua itself is becoming stronger, more resilient and more capable of sustaining future generations over time. 

There is also a quiet confidence within this approach. Rather than positioning itself as a finished model, He Rau Ake Ake acknowledges that intergenerational planning is an evolving process requiring adaptation, learning and collaboration. The emphasis is not on perfection, but on creating better conditions for the future. 

As climate pressures intensify and conversations around land transition continue across Tairāwhiti and wider Aotearoa, there is growing recognition that regional resilience will require more integrated approaches to land management. Initiatives like He Rau Ake Ake contribute to that wider conversation by demonstrating what becomes possible when mātauranga Māori, evidence, community aspirations and practical farming knowledge are brought together around a shared long-term vision.