Restoring The Balance – A new documentary challenges carbon-only thinking on nature restoration – Image: Tahi NZ
A powerful new documentary film, Restoring the Balance, is set to shine a global spotlight on a pioneering New Zealand restoration project that is redefining how nature is valued beyond carbon alone.
Produced by Open Planet, the film-makers behind a number of Sir David Attenborough documentaries, Restoring the Balance tells the story of Tahi, an 800-acre eco-reserve on the Northland coast, where a once-degraded cattle farm has been transformed over two decades into a thriving, native and biodiversity-rich ecosystem.
The 18 minute film explores a central question facing governments, businesses and communities worldwide: what is the true value of a forest? And, crucially, what happens when restoration efforts focus on speed and carbon metrics alone, rather than the complexity of whole ecosystems.
“When we first saw the land, it was totally degraded,” says Suzan Craig, Founder and CEO of Tahi. “There was just over 200 acres of standing forest, but no undergrowth. It was completely barren. It was a silent forest – it was a dying forest.”
The restoration project began in 2004, driven by a singular purpose to restore a functioning native ecosystem that supports biodiversity, water systems, soil health and long- term resilience, not just carbon storage.
Rather than relying on fast-growing uniformed monoculture plantings, the Tahi team adopted a whole-ecosystem approach. This included restoring wetlands, rebuilding forest structure from the ground up, reintroducing native species, and removing invasive predators.
Suzan’s father, Dr John Craig, one of New Zealand’s most respected ecologists, helped shape the scientific framework behind the project. “You’ve got to put a whole ecosystem together to get everything to come in and participate.” “What we found here is that you create a habitat and a bird arrives. We started with 20 species. We’ve now got more than 70.”
Today, Tahi supports more bird species than are found in many of New Zealand’s national parks, and natural regeneration has taken over, with millions of seedlings now growing without human intervention. “We’ve planted almost half a million trees, but we have more than eight million seedlings, which shows that it’s the birds that are really doing the work.”
The film explores Tahi’s science-led approach to large-scale ecosystem restoration and biodiversity regeneration, told through the lens of Open Planet’s award-winning documentary directors – The exclusive screening brought together a connected and collaborative group from Northland – Image: www.neuseeland-australien-news.com
Beyond Carbon: Valuing Nature in Northland
Restoring the Balance challenges the global fixation on carbon as the sole measure of environmental success, arguing that biodiversity-rich native ecosystems deliver far greater long-term benefits, from flood protection and water regulation to soil stability and climate resilience. “Currently, the financial model is all geared towards monocrops because carbon is what we’ve been counting,” says Suzan Craig.
“But when you include the whole carbon equation, above and below ground, and the many co-benefits like biodiversity, water, soil and resilience, the equation changes completely.” The film also highlights how detailed scientific monitoring at Tahi is creating transparent, measurable data that could inform restoration projects not just across New Zealand, but globally.
International environmental leader Julia Marton-Lefevre says this shift in thinking is critical. “If we do this intelligently, we will all benefit.” “Investing in nature is essential to achieve the kind of planet that we’re all striving for. We have allowed so much of our planet to be degraded, but we can see it’s possible to turn back and come back to healthy nature.”
From New Zealand to the World
Produced by Open Planet, whose films have been made in collaboration with Sir David Attenborough and other leading global broadcasters, Restoring the Balance positions Tahi as a real-world case study in what is possible when restoration is done with nature, not against it.
“We can be a real lighthouse project for what’s possible,” says Suzan. “How resilient nature is. How rapidly it bounces back. If you give it a little bit of help, it helps itself.”
As biodiversity loss and climate pressures intensify worldwide, Restoring the Balance offers a timely, evidence- based message that restoring complexity, not simplicity, may be the key to a healthier planet.
NAN/TAHI 12-06-26
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