As Tauranga gets set to lead New Zealand's Earth Hour celebrations this Saturday, WWF-New Zealand is launching a $60,000 fund to help communities restore coastal ecosystems affected by the Rena.

Tauranga's Earth Hour celebrations will recognise the community's efforts to protect their precious beaches and coastal environment in the wake of the Rena disaster, which struck almost six months ago.

A penguin found oiled from the Rena.

WWF's Bay of Plenty Restoration Fund was established after $30,000 was received from supporters nationwide, with a further $30,000 coming from The Tindall Foundation.

Community fund manager Marc Slade says the community response to the Rena disaster was overwhelmingly positive, with thousands of volunteers assisting the official clean-up efforts. He says it's fitting to be celebrating those efforts this Earth Hour.

'It's also important to recognise that long after the oil has been cleared off beaches and the last penguins and other rescued birds have been released, there may well be other less visible long-term impacts on the ecosystem which we don't yet fully understand.

'WWF is proud to support projects committed to long-term protection of wildlife and restoration of critical habitats, such as beaches, sand dunes and estuaries, so the environment is able to fully recover and thrive.”

In the first two weeks following the grounding, WWF marine staff joined the National Oiled Wildlife Recovery Team, coordinated by Maritime New Zealand, to assist with wildlife rescue and clean-up efforts and to assess the environmental impacts.

More than 2000 dead seabirds were collected in the months following the Rena incident, however Marc says the true number of birds and other wildlife killed by the oil spill will be much higher, as the majority would have been oiled and died at sea.

'The fund will also support monitoring of affected wildlife, to establish how this disaster affects them over the coming breeding seasons,” says Marc.

'We encourage local community, iwi or hapu groups involved with conservation in the region to apply.”

The fund is open from today and closes on April 27, with full details including application forms and criteria are available on wwf.org.nz