Maukahuka Pest Free Auckland Island halted until funding is secured

Sunday, 28 June 2020

Auckland Islands pest eradication project manager Stephen Horn said the project had been put on pause until funding could be secured. [File Photo]

A large programme to remove predators from the sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands has been halted until further funding can be secured.

During a Southland Conservation Board meeting on Thursday, Maukahuka Pest Free Auckland Island project manager Stephen Horn said during Covid-19, the project was put on pause because it was unrealistic to start in the economic climate.

It was particularly impacted by the cessation of the International Visitor Levy, which was useful funding for the project, Horn said.

The 10-year project to eradicate pests from the 57,000-hectre island had an estimated cost of $60 million, plus or minus 30 per cent.

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Maukahuka Pest Free Auckland Islands initially received $2 million to complete a feasibility study in 2018.

The project received a further $800,000 from the International Levy Fund last year.

In the wrap up stage of the project, that would last the next three to six months, the project would complete the feasibility study and draft operational pest plans for pigs, cats and mice and infrastructure, Horn said.

The team would head back to the islands in July, to pack down infrastructure that was set up for cat bait trails they had scheduled for September.

They were also collaborating with Auckland University to create a special edition of the New Zealand Journal of Ecology.

The collaboration would include components from the Auckland Islands feasibility study, along with other unpublished work such as sheep and cattle projects on Campbell Island, Horn said.

Auckland University's Dr James Russell would be the editor of the journal, he said.

Horn estimated that the feasibility study would be completed in the next three months.

'That sharing of knowledge is really important for us from a national perspective, but from an international perspective as well because there lots of good lessons for our public projects and around the world from what we have done.'

It was an economic factor that caused the programme to stop, and it would be an economic factor that would cause the project to restart, Horn said.

The project was reliant on 50 per cent of external donors and Horn acknowledged some of them would be struggling financially.

Predator Free New Zealand 2050 programme manager Brent Beaven was working a landscape project that would enable a packaged approach to government for funding of predator free projects, Horn said.

Beaven was also identifying work the Auckland Island team on other predator free projects.