Iwi already have life membership

Kati Huirapa's website http://www.puketeraki.co.nz/, under Environmental Projects, says that "the Runaka was recently recognised by the Otago Natural History Trust as an Honorary Life Member". No other group - not Forest and Bird, not the Dunedin City Council, not Rotary - has that honour, despite all these and many others  giving much more in donations and labour than the Runaka. So why the Runaka? And why is this not enough "symbolic formal recognition in the long term", to use the words of Runaka chairman Matapura Ellison?