Biodiversity Strategy Funding
BIODIVERSITY STRATEGY FUNDING - KIWI SANCTUARIES
Strict
embargo for automatic release 10.45am Thursday 8 June
2000
The Government will spend an extra $10 million on the Kiwi Recovery Programme - creating five kiwi sanctuaries across the country with funding secured for the next five years. This funding is part of a comprehensive five-year package involving conservation, environment, fisheries and biosecurity, confirmed in this year's Budget to support the Government's Biodiversity Strategy. It links to the strategy's goal to halt the decline in New Zealand's biodiversity and will also support the government's strategic goal of protecting and enhancing the environment.
The project
The project is to enhance the
Kiwi Recovery Programme by intensively managing kiwi at five
new sanctuaries in order to reduce decline on the mainland.
Sanctuaries are planned for:
• Haast - an area of around
18,000 hectares to protect Haast tokoeka
• Okarito - an
area of around 12,000 hectares to protect Okarito brown
kiwi
• Coromandel - an area of around 8500 hectares to
protect North Island brown kiwi
• Northland - a number of
small forest patches from Bream Head to Motatau totalling
about 2000 hectares to protect North Island brown
kiwi.
• An area of the western North Island - to protect
North Island brown kiwi.
Under threat
Declining numbers
have seen the kiwi on the mainland reduced to about 50,000
birds. Scientific assessments have shown that most kiwi
populations on the mainland are halving every decade. At
this rate of decline, many populations on the mainland will
effectively be extinct within 20 years.
Kiwi are no
longer able to successfully replace themselves on the
mainland as many eggs are eaten by possums and 95% of chicks
die in their first six months, mainly killed by stoats and
cats. Many adult birds are killed by ferrets and
dogs.
Actions
An enhanced Kiwi Recovery Programme will
help to ensure kiwi populations are retained on the
mainland. The five sanctuaries proposed for intensive
management will enable more New Zealanders to hear or see
their national bird in its natural habitat.
Work to
protect kiwi within the sanctuaries will
include:
• Extensive pest control of possums, stoats,
dogs, cats and ferrets
• Removing eggs from nests and
raising chicks - Operation Nest Egg
• Transferring chicks
to predator-free nursery ground islands
• Capture and
radio-tagging of birds
• Advocacy programmes with local
communities
• Research
Community partnerships
The sanctuaries include many opportunities for the Department of Conservation (DOC) to work in partnership with tangata whenua, private landowners and communities in helping maintain kiwi populations. Already there are active partnerships such as Bank of New Zealand and Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society working together with DOC on the Kiwi Recovery Programme through a sponsorship arrangement, administered through the Threatened Species Trust.
Funding package details
All figures in $m, GST inclusive.
2000/01 2001/02 2002/03 2003/04 2004/05
Total
$2.336 $1.789 $1.770 $1.718 $2.371
$9.984
For further information, please refer to
http://www.biodiv.govt.nz