This website located at https://tuhonotaiao.org.nz/ has been set up as an online platform to empower communities to restore nature, by enabling environmentally focused restoration groups to build connections with others across New Zealand. It is a way for to share best practices, tools, resources, expertise, and people.
You will be asked to agree to these Terms of Use when registering to use Tūhono Taiao. By registering to use Tūhono Taiao, and in consideration of us providing you with access to Tūhono Taiao, you agree you have read, understood, and accepted these Terms of Use govern your access to, and use of, Tūhono Taiao, and you agree to comply with them.
We reserve the right to amend these Terms of Use from time to time, of which our users will be notified. By continuing to use Tūhono Taiao after any changes to our Terms of Use, through entering your login, you are deemed to have accepted and shall be bound by those changes. If at any time you no longer agree to our Terms of Use, you must immediately notify us through the contact page and discontinue using Tūhono Taiao.
Any environmental or associated organisation or group may register to use Tūhono Taiao. We may contact you to confirm the validity of your registration, or to check whether you are lawfully appointed to represent the organisation you signed up for. We reserve the right to cancel your registration and withdraw your access to Tūhono Taiao, should you not be able to present satisfying evidence.
We recommend you use an organisation or team email address and contact details when registering, to ensure the privacy of your staff and secure ongoing ease of access in case of changes within your organisation. You will notify us through the contact page if you have lost access to the email address you signed up with.
Your login is a valuable and confidential item which authenticates your login. You are solely responsible for your login and keeping it secure. You agree you will:
You can invite members of your organisation to join Tūhono Taiao. They will need to create their own login, which remains subject to the individual’s acceptance of these Terms. You are responsible for managing members that are part of your own organisation or, where appropriate, remove inactive members or individuals that have left your organisation. We may, at times, contact you to inform you of inactive members tied to your organisation.
You understand that members you invite to Tūhono Taiao can post, modify or delete information on behalf of your organisation. You are fully responsible for any moderation necessary.
We are inviting all users to participate and to share content through the site, where we provide such functionality. However, you may not use Tūhono Taiao to share anything:
You can report content to us by clicking the report button displayed next to the content. We will review every report and take action, where appropriate.
If you notice suspicious behaviour on the website and suspect there has been a breach of these Terms, or otherwise suspect a threat to the Tūhono Taiao website or its users, you should immediately contact an administrator via the contact page.
You can also contact the administrator at any time to raise any concerns with Tūhono Taiao, issues navigating the website, or offer suggestions on improvements or bugs.
We reserve the right to suspend or cancel the login of any user of Tūhono Taiao at any time. Any conduct that violates the provisions outlined in these Terms may lead to permanent termination of your account, and the deletion of all your data from our servers.
Our Privacy Statement forms part of these Terms of Use. By agreeing to these Terms of Use, you also give your consent to the way we may handle your personal and organisation’s information as outlined in the statement.
By sharing content through the site that includes personal information of third parties, you confirm that you have their consent to how the information may be handled by us.
You solely and exclusively retain all right, title and interest, whether expressed or implied, in and to any and all data. By provision, you appoint us as custodian for your personal and organisation’s data. You understand that you remain responsible for ensuring that all information you provide is accurate and kept up to date.
By sharing content through the site that is not your own, you confirm that you have the necessary permissions of the owner to do so.
Other than personal information, which is covered by the privacy statement, any material you transmit or post to Tūhono Taiao is considered non-confidential. This includes feedback or submissions you provide.
We do not claim to own your copyright material. You do, however, grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use your material anywhere on the Tūhono Taiao website. You may withdraw this license at any time by requesting to delete your content from Tūhono Taiao, which will inhibit any future use of your material.
If your information is bound by legislation that regulate the disclosure of information (which may include personal information), these provisions still apply when you submit information to Tūhono Taiao. We will adhere to any statutory requirement (under New Zealand law) for the disclosure of any information in our custody. This specifically includes ‘official information’ under the Official Information Act 1982.
You understand that Tūhono Taiao should not be used as a data storage. We reserve the right to modify or remove any content uploaded, posted, transmitted, or otherwise made available on Tūhono Taiao by any user that we, in our absolute discretion, consider inappropriate, without notice.
You can delete your data, information and contents from Tūhono Taiao at any time, either directly via the provided functionality (depending on user permissions), or through requesting deletion from your Organisation Administrator. By initiating the deletion of any data, information and contents from Tūhono Taiao, you understand that it will be irretrievably lost.
Any information you provide to Tūhono Taiao, including information you may have deleted from the website, will be retained, stored, and disposed of in compliance with the requirements of the Public Records Act 2005.
Tūhono Taiao contains external links to other websites. We cannot guarantee all links are safe or checked before they are shared. It is the responsibility of each user to make their own decisions about the accuracy, currency, reliability, and correctness of the information contained in linked external websites.
We will use reasonable efforts to maintain an acceptable performance of Tūhono Taiao and our support of Tūhono Taiao users; however, we do not guarantee continuous operation of Tūhono Taiao, our support services, or integrity of the data stored or transmitted via Tūhono Taiao, Internet, or any services.
We make no warranty or representation as to continuity of service and reserve the right to suspend, terminate or otherwise alter access to some or all of the site's content or services at any time.
We endeavour to take care in our maintenance of this site. You agree, however, that we will not be liable to you, on any legal basis (including negligence), for any loss or damage you suffer through:
except in those cases where the law does not allow us to exclude or limit our liability to you.
Nothing on this website should be construed as legal advice. If you require legal advice, it is your responsibility to obtain it from an appropriately qualified lawyer.
If you knowingly access or use or attempt to access or use Tūhono Taiao for an unlawful purpose (including but not limited to fraud or attempted fraud or hacking or attempted hacking), you agree you will be liable to pay any party the amount of the loss caused directly or indirectly to the party by your unlawful actions.
You will not commence any court or arbitration proceedings relating to a question, difference, or dispute relating to these Terms of Use unless you have first complied with this section.
Where any dispute arises, you (or your representative) and a representative from us will meet and negotiate in good faith in an attempt to resolve the dispute amicably by good faith discussion. If you and our representative are unable to resolve the dispute to your satisfaction, you may ask us to escalate the dispute to the appropriate owner of Tūhono Taiao.
Where the representatives of the parties do not resolve the dispute within fifteen (15) Business Days (or as agreed) of initiating negotiations, the relevant parties agree to mediate any dispute in terms of the New Zealand Dispute Resolution Centre. The mediation will be conducted by a mediator and at a fee paid by the parties to the dispute.
If the parties fail to settle the dispute by mediation, then either party may initiate arbitration (but not litigation) in accordance with the Arbitration Act 1996 to resolve the dispute.
Nothing in this section will preclude a party from taking immediate steps to seek urgent injunctive or equitable relief before an appropriate court.
These Terms of Use are governed by the laws of New Zealand. You and we agree any disputes relating to these Terms of Use will be heard by the Courts of New Zealand.
In these Terms of Use, unless the context otherwise requires:
We collect personal information from you, including information about your name, contact information, location, computer or network, and interactions with us.
We collect your personal information to let you register on the website and create a profile, help connect organisations and projects together, send message notifications, and respond to feedback, queries, and complaints you submit through our contact forms or by email.
Besides our staff, we share this information with Google Analytics to collect data about your usage and activity, Mailchimp to enhance the user experience, and our third-party provider, Effect IT Ltd, for the purposes of creating a login for Tūhono Taiao.
The Ministry will hold all information you provide in accordance with the Privacy Act 2020. To protect your personal information, we take reasonable precautions and follow industry best practices to ensure it is not inappropriately lost, misused, accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed.
Information is stored, and disposed of, in compliance with the Privacy Act 2020, Official Information Act 1982, and the Public Records Act 2005.
You have the right to ask for a copy of any personal information we hold about you, and to ask for it to be corrected if you think it is wrong. If you’d like to ask for a copy of your information or to have it corrected, please contact us at tuhonotaiao@mfe.govt.nz.
If you have any concerns about your privacy, please contact:
Privacy Officer
Ministry for the Environment
PO Box 10362
Wellington 6143
or email info@mfe.govt.nz