Aims and Visions

Wilderland is owned and operated by Wilderland Trust (a charitable trust of New Zealand) and actively pursues the Objectives set-out in the Wilderland Trust Deed. For official information on the Trust check out our page on the New Zealand Charities Commission website.

Wilderland's Key Aims can be summarized as:

Education, Sustainability, and Community

Education

Wilderland's charitable purpose is to provide educational experiences to the wider community. Learning occurs mainly through hands-on experience and participation.

Learn How To:

Grow Your Own Food

Reduce Your Ecological Footprint

Develop Successful Cooperative Enterprises

Sustainability

Environmental Sustainability, Social Sustainability, Personal Sustainability

Sustainability means doing things in a way that maintains and nurtures that which sustains us.

Community

Community is cooperation, sharing, and support. A healthy community creates a wealth that money can't buy.

Local Economy

Wilderland promotes the benefits of Local Economy. Communities benefit economically, socially, and environmentally by developing fun and easy ways to trade many of life’s necessities within their region.

Cooperative Enterprise

Creating a project or running a business in which every worker is also a stake-holder encourages team-members to find better ways to cooperate and relate, rewards collective success, and promotes the ongoing personal and professional development of every member.

Wellbeing

Wilderland promotes the physical and emotional wellbeing of individuals, families, and the community through a balanced lifestyle including diet, physical activity, creativity, and cooperation.

Wilderland's aim is to continue developing ways to enhance the benefits of Sustainable Community in contemporary New Zealand.

Visions

Imagine...

a valleyed hillside of native New Zealand bush slowly returning to a diverse rainforest.

A diverse range of organic orchards, gardens and grain crops, showcasing a variety of sustainable horticultural practices, such as Permaculture and Biodynamics. It is an outdoor classroom for inquisitive minds. The crops provide healthy organic food for both the Wilderland community and the local community.

Scattered amongst the trees and gardens are a collection of uniquely beautiful dwellings and workshop spaces made by the hands of Wilderland participants, past and present. Some buildings are made almost entirely from materials found on the land: wood, earth, clay, and stone.

Many crafts are studied and practiced, including: woodwork, metalwork, mechanics, pottery, building, cooking, and healing.

A multi-purpose public building nestled amongst an orchard and gardens containing a shop, café, workshop space, and public venue. Nearby is a community garden where members of the public tend their personal plots, share collective gardening resources, and exchange information and knowledge with other gardeners and staff.

Wilderland is a popular venue and host for educational workshops, seminars, youth events, retreats, and more.

A community of resident volunteers working together to create an inspiring environment and guiding visitors through various rewarding experiences to explore, learn, share, and develop themselves.