Koanga is Non Profit organisation registered with the New Zealand Charity Commission.
Our History
Historically the Koanga institute and its founders have focused on saving our heritage food plants, including vegetable seeds and fruit trees. As a result, the Institute and its founders have brought together, New Zealand’s largest collection of NZ heritage vegetable seeds (800+), and a northern bio-regional heritage fruit tree and national berries collection (400+) over a 30 year period.
It has also become one of the leading practitioners, researcher and teacher of bio-intensive gardening and nutrient dense food production for home gardeners, and has developed a wide range of educational courses in self-reliance and ecological design which attracts students from around the world.
The Future
What has become increasingly obvious to Koanga’s founders, is that seed saving and heritage tree growing is only the first link in the food and human ecology chain, it is time for this vision to evolve. Throughout the world, ‘seed savers’, and many others, have come to the wider realisation that it is not just the ecology of our food that has been compromised by industrialization. We now understand that many other aspects of our “human ecology” have likewise been compromised, and we can’t address single issues (e.g. seed saving) in isolation. Seed saving is just one aspect of the broader need to address our “human ecology” within an industrial culture.
The Koanga Institute is moving its focus towards becoming a leading
centre for regenerative living.
The Institute has committed to developing a campus at 96 Kotare Road dedicated to:
- holding our heritage food plant collections
- research into all aspects of regenerative* living
- sharing our experience and knowledge
Through this, we aim to ensure the long-term sustainability, and regeneration of New Zealand’s bio-diversity heritage, and to contribute towards transformation in the wider community.
* “The term “regenerative” describes processes that restore, renew or revitalize their
own sources of energy and materials, creating sustainable systems that integrate the needs of society with the integrity of nature “ – Wikipedia
Vision statement
Our Vision is that through our research, living experience, and service, we are able to strengthen people’s ability to create regenerative environments and self-reliant cultures
Mission statement
The Mission of the Koanga Institute is to inspire, encourage and support regenerative self-reliant communities by:
- protecting, developing and sharing our NZ heritage food plants
- researching, experiencing and sharing knowledge on regenerative systems
- engaging with others to facilitate the adoption of a regenerative culture
The term “regenerative” describes processes that restore, renew or revitalize their own sources of energy and materials, creating sustainable systems that integrate the needs of society with the integrity of nature