Tena Koutou, welcome to the Kaipara Branch of the Forest and Bird Protection Society, the country's leading independent conservation organisation. The Society's mission is to preserve and protect the native plants and animals and natural features of New Zealand.

Kaipara Forest and Bird was formed to focus on conservation issues concerning the Harbour, South Kaipara and Norwest communities.  The branch began life as a section of Waitakere Forest and Bird in 2004 and became an official branch of Forest and Bird in November 2005. 

The Kaipara Branch has a broad agenda seeking to promote the sustainable development of the Harbour and its catchment.  As part of this work we have a major communty partnership to restore the 615 ha Atuanui (Mt Auckland Reserve) through the Atuanui Restoration Project.  The Branch also manages the Kerr Taylor Reserve at Waimauku.

A central focus of branch activities is the protection of the Kaipara Harbour's ecological, landscape and natural heritage values.  An aquaculture company has proposed large industrial scale aquaculture in inappropriate areas of the Harbour - areas that have high landscape values, such as the area off Omokoiti coastal reserves, or that have high marine ecology values, such as the areas of subtidal zostera seagrass and benthic communities in the southern Kaipara.