Kauri are among Aotearoa New Zealand’s tallest and longest-lived trees – and their place in our cultural landscape looms equally large.

Centuries-old kauri such as Tāne Mahuta and Te Matua Ngahere are taonga, with deep cultural and spiritual significance to Māori.

Also remarkable is the amount of carbon these trees hold. Large kauri have gradually accumulated enormous amounts of biomass, leaving great quantities of carbon stored in their trunks, branches and roots.

Over the past two decades, however, these giants of our forests have faced a growing threat from kauri dieback.

The disease is caused by the soil-borne water mould Phytophthora agathidicida, which infects kauri through their roots and disrupts their ability to take up water and nutrients. As it progresses, trees can lose foliage and branches and eventually die.

The toll has been significant. Hundreds to thousands of kauri across New Zealand’s upper North Island have died, with some of the heaviest losses recorded in Northland and Auckland’s Waitākere Ranges.

As dieback spreads and affected trees decline, some of the carbon held in their living biomass is lost from that store – with direct implications for carbon sequestration and the broader health of these forest ecosystems.

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