Dear Mr Howard,

We at WWF were interested to read your latest Howard’s End, which we always enjoy.

Your headline “Habitat of Hope, not Hype” struck a chord particularly with us because WWF as a conservation organisation often works with business to find a way forward in protecting our precious earth. We believe that working hand-in-hand with business is an important way forward for conservation, and we’ve achieved some excellent results.

One example which has particular relevance for your column is our Habitat Protection Fund, which we administer for the Tindall Foundation. The Habitat Protection Fund enables us to grant $160,000 a year to small community groups for their own conservation initiatives: People who are doing just what you advocate – getting out into their local communities, adopting a piece of land or water, and restoring and protecting it.

Through the Fund, we’ve helped groups from Kaitaia to the Bluff to restore wetlands, dunes, rivers, and sometimes their own land. Habitat Protection Fund money has bought spades and trees, funded fences and walkways and pest eradication – all by people who sat up and took notice, and decided to make a difference to their local patch. You can find out more about all the different projects on our website at http://www.wwf.org.nz/conservation

We invite community groups all over New Zealand to seek our support for their conservation projects through the Habitat Protection Fund.

Yours sincerely,

Jo Breese
Chief Executive, WWF-NZ

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