Protect and restore biodiversity. It's what we do.

We have over $2 million in contestable funding for local environment groups to give out in the 2025/26 financial year.

  • Regional councils have responsibilities to maintain indigenous biodiversity. The focus of our work is to support biodiversity restoration on private land and in coastal areas and freshwater environments, however, we also invest in community-led projects across all land tenures. We are:

    • investing in our region’s biodiversity through our Natural Heritage Partnership Programme, which includes three contestable funds to support numerous worthwhile community-led conservation projects and providing strategic and technical advice to community groups where needed.
    • supporting landowners across the region to look after high priority biodiversity sites, shallow lakes, fragile coastal areas and wetlands
    • working with numerous farmers and landowners in the Waitomo, Ōtorohanga, Waipā, Waikato, Matamata-Piako, South Waikato and Hauraki districts, to assist them to protect, restore and expand on the network of important lowland kahikatea remnants
    • working collaboratively with other agencies to share knowledge to maximise biodiversity outcomes for our region, for example, with Bat Alliance based in Central Waikato
    • raising awareness of the actions everyone can take to improve their own local environments, including through Enviroschools and the mātauranga Māori environmental education programme Kura Waitī Ki Kura Waitā
    • tracking changes in the indigenous coverage of protected areas over time, which supports knowledge about the extent of the region's biodiversity and helps with policy making and resource consent decisions.

    Did you know?

    The Waikato region is still home to many native plants and animals, including:

    • > 900 plants species
    • 124 bird species
    • 19 reptile species (including geckos, skinks and tuatara)
    • two bat species
    • two frog species.

    Our streams and rivers are also home to many types of fish and invertebrates. At least 300 of these species are threatened with extinction, including all our bat and frog species, 40 per cent of our native bird species and about one in every five of our native plant species.

Stories about biodiversity

What else do we do?

Improving water quality, enhancing the health of our coastal and marine ecosystems, protecting and restoring our unique native plants and animals and the ecosystems they live in, keeping people safe on our roads and waterways as well as from floods and other hazards, and providing passenger transport services.

We do all this, and more.

Learn more about our mahi

There are not enough New Zealanders voting in local elections. There are many reasons for low levels of engagement – lack of knowledge of the work councils do, a perceived low ability to influence change, lack of competition between candidates, and lack of knowledge about the candidates and their views. Find out what you can do to inform yourself on the matters of the regional council and to get votes.

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Waikato Regional Council has co-governance and co-management arrangements with several iwi partners. 

Learn about our iwi relationships

Local elections are in October

Get ready to participate in local elections 2025 for the Waikato region.

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