📚 Training and Employment Pathways
Activities
Te Kete Hononga: The Basket of Connections
Te Kete Hononga (“basket of connections”) bundles navigation support for community initiatives: funding, training, and agencies threaded through a trusted Kairaranga (weaver)—a local person trained to open doors across the system. One contact per community reduces friction with fragmented government programmes while keeping authority close to whānau knowledge and aspirations.
He Ripo Kau: A Vision for the Hokianga
He Ripo Kau applies the Tapere logic in Hokianga—linking taiao renewal with mana tangata. Since 2016, hui have convened hau kāinga around a shared model. NZD 3.2 million in Provincial Growth Fund support underpinned a 2020 recovery and employment wave—45+ km of stream fencing, 50+ ha planted, and training pipelines into land-care jobs. The case shows vision translating into paid, on-ground regeneration.
Training & Green Jobs
Workstreams test how skills training, environmental credits, and rural job pathways can align—linking restoration and land work to livelihoods and, where relevant, to housing stability in scattered communities.
Our Rainforest Futures
The challenge of restoring Scotland's rainforest is also about building the local capacity to do the work. Our Rainforest Futures, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, creates jobs and skills training opportunities across the west of Scotland, ensuring that local communities have the knowledge and resources to deliver long-term habitat restoration. The project brings people together to share knowledge and learn from each other, building the skills needed for rainforest management—from invasive species control to habitat monitoring—while contributing to rural economies and community wealth.
Academia Biosférica
The Academia Biosférica program represents an intergenerational training initiative developed in partnership with institutions across Latin America. This academy will integrate ecosystem restoration education, mountain ecology, and regenerative culture practices, combining scientific knowledge with ancestral wisdom and youth leadership training. The program aims to generate ecological, economic, social, and cultural sustainability through the social inclusion of young people in ecological restoration and environmental education.
Culture and Employment
Beyond ecological goals, the restoration work focuses on promoting visibility of local gaucho and indigenous communities, creating green employment opportunities for youth in restoration, mountain guiding, and forest ranger positions. This dual approach addresses both ecosystem degradation and the need for sustainable livelihoods that keep young people connected to mountain communities.