Predator Free New Zealand marks five years working towards 'crazy and ambitious' goal

Thursday, 10 June 2021

A bold initiative to rid mainland New Zealand of rats, stoats and possums that was described as a “crazy and ambitious Moonshot” has made significant gains.

On Thursday the Department of Conservation hosted a summit of key figures in Predator Free New Zealand programme to release the progress report in the Predator Free 2050 national strategy.

Acting Minister for Conservation Dr Ayesha Verrall opened proceedings with the news that areas across the country where predators were actively suppressed had exceeded goals set for 2025 with more than 1,083,760 hectares currently controlled.

The task ahead was still challenging in terms of size and scope with Verrall pointing out a recent review of 9000 land species revealed that more than 3000 were threatened or at risk of extinction.

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It was physicist Sir Paul Callaghan​ who described the idea as New Zealand’s “crazy and ambitious Moonshot”when he first suggested the idea in 2012

Keynote speaker Dame Juliet Gerrard talked of her initial scepticism until she had the opportunity to compare two Fiordland islands, one of them predator controlled.

On the controlled island, Gerrard said the sound of the wildlife about her “just lit up, and I got it”.

During the summit speakers will discuss public engagement with the 30-year initiative, learnings from the last five years and scientific and innovative strategies for the future of the programme.

Brent Beaven of the Department of Conservation said the last five years had shown a predator-free Aotearoa was achievable.

“Now that we have mapped it all out, it’s left me with a huge confidence that we can do it. It’s not an impossible dream,” Beaven said.

The number and diversity of attendees at the summit was evidence of the team effort required to achieve it’ goal for 2050.

“No one can do this by themselves. When we’ve got a clear shared goal look at what we can achieve,” Beaven said.

The summit would discuss the engineering and scientific challenges of predator eradication, but also the social challenges involved in bringing the country together for the common goal.

“You can’t parachute in the solution for communities, but people have an interest in the places they live and breathe and play in. We’ve got to find a way to include people in that,” Beaven said.

The progress of the last five years was encouraging but the programme’s ambitions were racing against damage that had an almost 150 years headstart.

“We are faced with a stark choice. Where we don’t do predator control the birds have gone, It’s silent. There is an urgency here, we have to ask how much do we want to lose,” Beaven said.