Natural Heritage Fund

Information for applicants - please read first

• Assessment criteria

  Only those applications that score highly against the following criteria and have good supporting justification will be recommended for funding:

  1. Fit with Council’s regional outcomes, strategic priorities, and policies
  2. Environmental enhancement - How the project will directly promote, enhance or protect the Waikato region’s environment, with a focus on improved ecological and biodiversity outcomes.
  3. Community participation and awareness – How the project involves iwi Māori, the wider community and increases public awareness of environmental issues. What is the level of mana whenua and community support for the project.
  4. Collaboration and partnership – Whether the applicants have explored and developed any opportunities for collaboration and partnership with others, including any co-funding and support from other parties.
  5. Viability – The likelihood of the project’s success and the applicant’s capability to deliver the outcomes of the project.
  6. Value to mana whenua – Relative to the scale of the project, how the project involves iwi Māori including their cultural values, interests and associations, the effect on Māori historic heritage or the relationship of Māori and their culture and traditions with their ancestral lands, water, sites, waahi tapu and other taonga including fauna and flora.
• Who can apply?

  Organisations must be a legal entity with a track record that satisfies Council.

  Organisations able to apply include:

  • charitable trusts
  • iwi/hapu
  • incorporated societies
  • community trusts
  • educational institutions
  • limited liability companies
• Who cannot apply?
  • Central government departments and agencies and territorial authorities. (Applications from community groups with these agencies as partners or co-funders are encouraged. However, the lead must clearly be the community group).
  • Crown Research Institutes.
  • Groups that are funded through other Waikato Regional Council programmes or central government programmes.
  • Organisations that are based outside of New Zealand.
• What project costs can be funded
  • The NHF will generally contribute to materials, labour costs, contractor costs and costs associated with supporting volunteers.
  • The NHF can support land purchase and other mechanisms to protect land, noting that during the 2024-2027 period land purchase is not a priority.
• What cannot be funded?
  • Projects located outside the Waikato Regional Council administrative boundaries.
  • Debt repayment, refinancing of existing loans, deposits, or underwriting projects.
  • Projects receiving funding from other Council programmes (however; aspects of a project not covered under another programme may be eligible to apply for funding).
  • Projects more appropriately funded through other Council programmes.
  • Projects which the Council considers are core business of other agencies.
  • Overseas travel or conference expenses, legal expenses, expenses incurred through participation in statutory processes.
  • Landscaping, beautification, food gardening and wildlife pond projects that do not have appropriate environmental outcomes.
  • Proposals designed to generate personal or commercial benefit, political or religious objectives, or for private pecuniary profit or gain.
  • Projects which seek to redistribute, at their own discretion, funds to recipients.
  • Consultants’ fees or salaries that are not directly linked to an activity or programme with proven benefit to the community and/or environment.
  • Purchase of large capital items of equipment or infrastructure (e.g. vehicles, solar panels, buildings, building renovations, roads, and bridges etc.).
  • Any works/activities that are required as conditions of a resource consent or as mitigation as part of a resource consent.
  • Projects that require resource consent but have not received one at the date of the close of the funding round.
  • Retrospective funding for projects or items completed or acquired before the application closing date.
  • Any project that would have significant adverse impacts on the environment, regardless of the positive impacts.
• Limitations

  Only one application from any group will be accepted per financial year. Groups applying to the NHF may be funded for more than one year for a particular project (up to four years); however, a different project can only be funded once any prior project has been successfully completed and reporting requirements met.

  If you have received funding through either the Small Scale Community Initiatives Fund, Environmental Initiatives Fund or Natural Heritage Fund in the past, you must ensure that you have completed your final accountability report before applying to this Natural Heritage Fund round.
• How are the applications assessed?

  A panel will assess and score the applications against the criteria in the Natural Heritage Partnership Programme Funding Policy [PDF, 240 KB]. The Integrated Catchment Management Committee (ICMC) will then consider recommendations from the assessment panel and decide which projects will be funded.

  Not all projects will be able to be funded if applications exceed available funding. Projects may be part funded. There is no obligation on the Council to allocate the total amount of the NHF round if insufficiently acceptable applications are received.