The Hinewai Reserve is a privately owned nature regeneration project which covers 1,250 hectares and focuses on the natural restoration of endemic plants and animals.

Nature-based Intervention:

The reserve was initially marginal farmland which contained remnant of old growth forest, with the first purchase of 109 hectares of land occurring in 1987 by the Maurice White Native Forest Trust. As the reserve grew to its full size they utilized a natural regeneration technique with limited interventions to bring back native vegetation and wildlife alongside the 50 hectares of old growth forest the reserve protects. Non-native species which seriously impeded this natural regeneration were removed (such as feral goats which were eliminated from the reserve in 1999), but other species were left such as non-native gorse. Gorse which is widely seen as an agricultural pest in New Zealand, but the land managers found that its thorny branches and nitrogen fixing properties allowed it to protect native tree saplings until they grew large enough to eventually shade-out and kill the gorse. The scale of forest regeneration on the land have allowed the reserve to enter the emissions trading scheme.

Overview of context and outcomes:

The reserve is located near the township of Akaroa and includes a network of walking trails which are open to public used. The managers of the Hinewai Reserve have also overseen the adjacent 192 hectare Purple Peak Curry Reserve which was purchased by the New Zealand Native Forest Restoration Trust in 2016.