Our training units are real world/industry rather than accreditation led.
Whether you’re an introductory conservation enthusiast, a seasoned volunteer, a hapū leader honing new skills or seeking a career path in conservation,
we can empower you with the knowledge you’ll need for real world challenges.
Tauira Mahi Conservation Training follows Bay Conservation Alliance’s successful Tauira Mahi Cadet Training Programme.
The cadet programme, based in the Bay of Plenty (funded by Jobs for Nature through Ministry for Environment), was industry-led and ran from 2021 to 2025.
In that time it proved it was meeting the needs of today’s real-world conservation challenges – having a positive impact on graduating cadets (students) and receiving impressive feedback from their subsequent employers and conservation groups from all over New Zealand.
Tauira Mahi Conservation Training is our revised programme and offers both online and in-person training units. Developed to support the ongoing learning and successes of people who are passionate and committed to protecting Aotearoa’s taonga species and critical ecosystems.
The core focus for Bay Conservation is ‘Empowering Communities – Restoring Nature’.
Biodiversity is at the heart of what we do, and BCA's Tauira Mahi Cadets course has helped our team deeply connect with that purpose. The coaching they received has made them not only better employees but better people too. It’s a powerful programme that delivers growth on every level — professional, personal, and environmental.
Paul Button, G.M.,
Rotorua Canopy Tours
The entire programme has made an enormous change in the community conservation groups in the Bay of Plenty, and presumably also further afield. Some cadets have proved so capable that they became Trustees, and others we employ as often as we can as contractors, to work the difficult country that our volunteers struggle with.
Graeme Young, Chair,
Kaharoa Kōkako Trust
I can say with a high degree of confidence that I have not experienced a conservation training programme like this anywhere. BCA have tapped in to leading professionals in the industry from a number of different conservation work streams. This means that the Cadets are able to learn directly from years of hard earned experience and have real conversations and ask questions of people who live it daily.
John Bissell, Director,
Backblocks Environmental Management Ltd
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