The management of Tauranga's historic mountain reserve ‘Mauao' is to be shared following the official signing of a memorandum of understanding between Tauranga City Council and the Mauao Trust today.

Tauranga Mayor Stuart Crosby signs the memorandum of understanding. Photos by Daniel Hines.

Today's signing means Mauao will now be jointly-governed by Maori and the council through a Joint Administering Body, which will take control of running the cultural and iconic landscape from the Mauao Steering Committee.

The special signing – at Mauao Historic Reserve – was attended by around 30 people including the city mayor Stuart Crosby and Mauao Trust representative Awanui Black.

The mayor identified the signing as a 'special day” recognising the co-management status between Tauranga City council and Mauao Trust.

One of the critical elements of the new MOU, Stuart says, is the development of new management plan.

Tauranga City Council staff and Mauao Trust representatives gather to witness the signing of the memorandum at Mauao Historic Reserve.

'That's absolutely critical. The current one has served us well but we are heading into a new environment and the precious mountain does require a new management plan.”

The key difference between the new memorandum of understanding and previous one is the number of principles that relate to Maori tikanga, says Stuart.

'I don't claim to understand them all but my limited knowledge is that it will certainly take into account some of those values that have not been included before.”

Mauao Trust member Awanui Black says a lot of time and work has been put into securing a joint management and today acknowledged council staff and trust representatives offering his sincere thanks to their role in moving the management role forward.

Awanui is looking forward to what the future holds and says the joint board has worked together to ensure 'to the best of their abilities” tangata whenua values and community values are taken into consideration in a very practical way in terms of how this mountain is managed.

The new agreement does not affect public access to Mauao, which is protected and will continue.

Four representatives from TCC and the Mauao Trust will form the joint board and will meet once legislation is put in place and representatives have been appointed, near November.

One of the new board's first tasks is to review the reserve management plan currently in place for Mauao.

The MOU has been more than a year in the making after council supported the establishment of a joint administering body in March 2012.

This followed a hui at Hairini Marae where the Mauao Trust, supported by the Tauranga Moana Iwi Collective, presented their aspirations for Mauao to elected members.

The primary objective was to initiate the proposal for entering into a joint administering body relationship between the Mauao Trust and Tauranga City Council.

Ownership of Mauao was returned from the Crown to local Iwi in 2007 – and ownership was vested with Tauranga Moana Iwi through the establishment of the Mauao Trust.

While the ownership of Mauao was transferred to Tangata Whenua, responsibility for decisions on the control and management of the mountain stayed with

the council through the administering body status in the Reserves Act 1977. Signing the MOU transfers that responsibility from the council to the joint board.

The MOU was approved by the Mauao Trust in May this year and received a similar endorsement by TCC at a Council meeting in June.