16 December 2017 MEDIA STATEMENT
Boost for weed control to protect Abel Tasman

Work to halt the spread of invasive weeds around the Abel Tasman National Park will receive a funding increase, Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage has announced.

The Project De-Vine Trust has been granted $80,000 from the DOC Community Fund to boost efforts to knock back Banana Passionfruit vines and Old Man’s Beard and create a weed-free ‘halo’ effect around Abel Tasman National Park.

Ms Sage says pest plants know no boundaries between private and public land, creeping across the landscape and smothering New Zealand’s native plants and slowing or preventing native seedling regeneration.

“Project De-Vine has made a significant difference for conservation since starting out with a handful of landowners back in 2010. Since then, weed control teams have killed 290,000 vines in Golden Bay.”

The new funding will go towards controlling pest vines on 23 properties over 268 hectares in Tata and Ligar Bay. These properties were assessed using an earlier DOC grant of $9000.

Project De-Vine’s collaborative approach with private landowners, iwi, community, councils, government and the Project Janszoon Trust – which works within Abel Tasman National Park – is a model for the essential landscape-scale work needed to address New Zealand’s biodiversity crisis, Ms Sage says.

“Project De-Vine’s goal is ambitious, but achievable. It is also a reminder of the scale of the task we have before us as a country if we are going to turn around our biodiversity crisis and halt the decline of around 4000 at-risk species of plants and animals.”

This latest DOC Community Fund funding round has granted 112 conservation groups around the country a total of $4.215 million. For a full list of funded projects, visit http://www.doc.govt.nz/get-involved/funding/doc-community-fund/successful-applications-2017/.

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