Food forests are one way communities can work together to grow kai, support biodiversity, and build climate resilience together.
This approach has been used by communities around the world for generations. Long before modern agriculture, people worked with forest landscapes to grow and harvest food in ways that supported both people and the environment.
Today, a food forest usually means planting in a way that mimics a natural forest, while including fruit and food producing trees we love to eat.
Instead of planting one crop at a time, different plants grow together in layers - like trees, shrubs, herbs and ground plants. They support each other, just like they would in nature.
This makes it easier to grow food over time with fewer external inputs, like chemicals.
Auckland Council is supporting community groups and marae to develop food forest projects. These projects aim to:
Behind our base at 41 Boundary Road, on the edge of Te Pae o Manukau, we’ve been dreaming up a food forest. Once upon a time, the ngahere/forest was our ancestors' supermarket that provided all the tools and kai they needed to thrive.
Our vision today is to recreate that abundant ngahere, by growing fruit trees and ancestral plants, including plants that sailed here with our Pasifika people long ago.
This is part of our kai resilience kaupapa giving the surrounding community direct, public access to food while restoring our relationships with our roots, kai and whenua.
For more than 15 years, Triangle Park Teaching Garden has been a place for the community to come together, building hands on skills in growing kai and caring for the environment.
West Auckland was once shaped by vineyards, orchards and market gardens, yet today many face challenges accessing nourishing, affordable food.
Now, the garden is expanding, with plans to cloak more of the park in a food forest that will provide shade, restore soil health, grow local kai, and strengthen community resilience.
Te toto o te tangata he kai, te oranga o te tangata, he whenua, he oneone. While food provides the blood in our veins, our wellbeing is drawn from the land and soils. Te Piringatahi o te Maungaarongo is a mātāwaka marae in West Harbour.
It’s the home of an emerging wao hua, food forest that weaves together kōrero tuku iho and iwi taketake knowledge with modern kai growing methods to enhance the health of the soil, grow nutritious kai and increase the wellbeing of whānau and community in West Auckland.
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