From the outset, the Trust had established that it would best achieve its objectives for sustainable management and conservation of Banks Peninsula’s natural environment and associated recreation by acting as a facilitator, conduit and connector assisting existing groups with projects that aligned to the Trust’s objectives and taking a lead role only where gaps in the existing mix were identified. The initial step was therefore to conduct a stocktake to pull together a list of organisations involved with such work, learn of their projects, the issues they face and how the Trust could be of most assistance.

The stocktake process identified 89 organisations (and parts of organisations) involved with these types of projects and included in depth qualitative interviews with representatives from government organisations (DOC, CCC, Ecan) working on the Peninsula environment, the two Community Boards, the five runanga, environmental scientists from both Lincoln and Canterbury universities and a wide range of community groups involved with conservation, eco-tourism, walking and cycling recreation. The interviews were then systematically analysed to determine how the Trust could position itself through a mix of direct funding of projects, initiating new projects, plugging environmental gaps in the current mix of work, and overcoming some of the systemic issues that hamper progress.  The report can be downloaded by clicking here