Healing the Forest: Ora Barlow on Indigenous Leadership & Nature Finance

An intimate conversation on Indigenous-led restoration, climate resilience and carbon financing in nature at landscape scale.
About this Event

“This is why we decided to heal our forest.”
— Ora Barlow

Please join us at Township in Sausalito for drinks, light food and an intimate evening with Ora Barlow, a Te Whānau-ā-Apanui trustee and governor of Raukūmara Pae Maunga.

Te Raukūmara is a 250,000-hectare mountain-to-sea landscape on the East Coast of Aotearoa New Zealand, forming part of the largest continuous native forest remaining in the North Island. It is also a living ancestor and a source of cultural, ecological and community wellbeing for Ngāti Porou and Te Whānau-ā-Apanui.

Raukūmara Pae Maunga is an iwi-led initiative working to restore the mauri of this landscape. Its current project area protects approximately 130,000 hectares through large-scale predator and ungulate management, ecological monitoring, mātauranga Māori, community engagement, specialist employment and intergenerational stewardship.

Using the experience of Raukūmara as our starting point, we will explore a broader question:

What should credible, community-led climate and nature finance look like—and how can investors, corporate partners, philanthropists and carbon-market participants help restoration endure for generations?

Ora will share the human and ecological story behind the initiative, followed by a moderated conversation and open discussion.

This is not a formal investment presentation. It is a small gathering designed for honest questions, useful connections and practical exchange among people working across climate, nature, finance, technology, conservation and philanthropy.