The Lake Taupō Protection Trust was set up in February 2007 to administer the $81.5 million fund to protect Lake Taupō's excellent water quality, which is under threat from the effects of past and current land use activities.
The trust was charged with developing a programme of work that would reduce the amount of manageable nitrogen leaching into the lake by 20 per cent.
The trust used the funds to encourage and assist land use change, to purchase land/nitrogen in the Lake Taupō catchment and to fund any other initiatives that assisted landowners to reduce the nitrogen impact of their activities on Lake Taupō.
All nitrogen purchases have been completed and the project is now within a monitoring phase.
Taupō District Council was appointed as the sole trustee of the trust on 30 June 2023.
The trust reports to the Government (Ministry for the Environment), Ngāti Tūwharetoa and Waikato Regional Council.
The Lake Taupō Protection Project Joint Committee comprises 2 representatives from Government, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Taupō District Council and Waikato Regional Council.
Trust funding
Trust funding comes from the Ministry for the Environment (45%), Waikato Regional Council (33%) and the Taupō District Council (22%). This funding provides a total of $81 million (incl. GST) over 15 years and will be reviewed after 5 years.
Download the Trust’s Funding deed
Annual report and financial statements
You can read the annual report for the year ending 30 June 2024 and the audited financial statement.