Patron and partnerships herald new era for Bream Head Trust

Media Release
27 October 2017

The Bream Head Conservation Trust has welcomed a new patron and a new era of conservation partnership in support of its restoration efforts on the Bream Head Scenic Reserve.

AUT University Chancellor, John Maasland, became the Trust’s new patron at a ceremony in Whangarei on Thursday 26 October, as the Trust also announced that it was opening the way for corporate partnerships to help fund the ambitious goals of its 2017 – 2021 five-year restoration plan.

“The Trust is honoured to have John Maasland accept the position of patron,” says Greg Innes, Bream Head Conservation Trust Chairman.
“He has a distinguished business career behind him and is a director of Waterman Capital, Chairman of their No.3 Investment Fund and the Pacific Oceans Initiative, and a former Chairman of the Airways Corporation of New Zealand, Carter Holt Harvey, Auckland International Airport, Hellaby Holdings, the South Auckland Health Foundation, the Royal New Zealand Ballet, and Wilson & Horton.
“John’s appointment heralds a new beginning for the Trust, and it co-incides with our decision to seek partnerships with five businesses to help fund the progressive species and habitat protection programmes we have planned.”

Those programmes build on the work started in 2001 with the establishment of the Trust to see the pest-ridden Bream Head Scenic Reserve on the Whangarei Heads Peninsula returned to its pre-European state. Predators had made this, the largest remaining area of coastal pohutukawa-broadleaf forest in Northland, inhospitable to the birds that once filled its trees, and Trust members wanted to tempt them back from the offshore islands to which they had retreated.

“Fifteen years of intensive pest control programmes and community engagement have since seen the Trust achieve local, national and internationally-acclaimed conservation successes on the Reserve,” Greg Innes says.

“Our 2017 – 2021 five-year restoration plan now raises the bar even higher, with John Maasland’s appointment as patron adding impetus to our search for big-hearted businesses committed to financial support of our projects.”

He has big boots to fill. The Trust’s previous high-profile patrons, the late Sir Edmund Hillary and Sir Paul Reeves, were both active supporters of its aims and initiatives.

“We know that John Maasland’s extensive business knowledge and experience will also be a huge asset to the Trust, especially at this stage in its conservation journey,” Greg Innes says.

“We look forward to having him as patron and to working with him to take our work on the Bream Head Scenic Reserve to new levels in years to come.”

ENDS

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