Charmaine Petereit checking a victor trap on her 97 acre property that borders the Kahurangi National Park.

A nationally significant project to restore Golden Bay's natural environment is now taking flight.

The newly formed Project Mohua Trust will support large landscape-scale conservation work from Farewell Spit to Kahurangi and Abel Tasman national parks.

It has lodged funding applications and is now seeking high-quality trustees.

Project coordinator Charmaine Petereit said it was looking for new trustees from around New Zealand with the skills to enable it to function effectively.

One of its aims was to restore the existing remnant populations of heavily predated mohua, or yellow head, to sustainable levels in Golden Bay.

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Project Mohua would provide umbrella administration, funding and planning support for Golden Bay's numerous voluntary environmental groups and enable new community-led conservation initiatives, she said.

"We want to pull together all these smaller organisations because we need to be doing landscape-scale restoration, rather than standalone efforts to make a real difference to biodiversity."

It would work in conjunction with the Department of Conservation (DOC) and Project Janszoon, a privately funded initiative working with DOC on the restoration of Abel Tasman National Park.

The project would create economies of scale, develop robust structures and be more able to attract funding, she said.

Funding applications were already before the Ministry for the Environment, and Petereit hoped to see work on the ground underway before mid-2018.

Project Mohua would provide community group funding, planning, management and support, community engagement and education.

Work on developing the trust had been spearheaded by a steering committee formed following a public meeting in Golden Bay in July.

Committee chair Marian Milne said having the right trustees for the project was essential to its success.

The larger scale required more robust structures to meet the financial accountability and organizational requirements of funding agencies, she said.

Golden Bay community and conservation groups had asked for an organisation able to help co-ordinate efforts and provide additional support and resourcing which were largely missing in the volunteer space.

"This allowed individuals and groups to focus more on doing work on the ground rather than a lot of administration," Milne said.

One of Project Mohua's objectives would be connecting young people with their environment so they could carry Project Mohua forward.

The trust would work with schools, education providers and Tasman District Council to provide local restoration initiatives, creating a way for young people to develop their skills and understand future volunteer work and career choices.

Developing the trustee recruitment process would take place over the next two months with a call for trustee applications expected early in the new year.