27 December 2023
One man’s slash has, for this group, become somewhat of a treasure.
And it all started with Edmund Hillary Fellow and social entrepreneur Thabiso Mashaba when he arrived in Tolaga Bay from Botswana just after Cyclone Gabrielle hit.
“I literally went down to the beach because I come from a desert, and I was excited to see the beach, only to find a lot of slash on the beach,” he said.
Forestry company atoning for past slash damage by funding cleanups
He was devastated – so wanted to do something about it.
“We thought about what is the best way to deal with it but deal with it in a way that would probably create some employment for the community members,” he said.
And he landed on slash for cash. He used skills he learned in Botswana to turn the woody debris littering Tairawhiti beaches into charcoal briquettes and fertiliser.
“Basically we take the slash between 2cm and 20cm, stack it in the drum, start the fire,” he said.
And it’s done through the environmentally friendly process of carbonisation.
Thabiso teamed up with the Eastern Institute of Technology, training 45 people from the coast as part of the adult community education programme.
“It’s been amazing for us here in Tolaga Bay – refreshing, healing, therapeutic… just all about helping out the land and our people,” said Jessie Thatcher.
“It’s very important for our community, getting them motivated and off the couch, getting them activated and into mahi,” added Matene Maraki.
And that’s always been the goal for Thabiso.
“The real reason we started it was really to create jobs for the locals while we are also healing the land,” he said.
A community-driven project to turn the negative impacts of Cyclone Gabrielle into a positive.
