Predator Free 2050 Predator Free 2050 imagines what New Zealand could look like if key mammalian predators are eradicated, allowing our native fauna to flourish. We asked Jessi Morgan from Predator Free New Zealand Trust (PFNZ) about how all New Zealanders can help to save our unique wildlife.
What are the origins of Predator Free New Zealand Trust? The Trust is an independent charitable trust formed in 2013 by several business people and philanthropists who had sensed a growing support to work towards a predator free New Zealand. They were inspired by the late Paul Callaghan’s vision to take on the challenge. The Trust’s purpose is to locate the myriad of people engaged in the predator free vision – including agencies, community groups, iwi, farmers and land-owners – connect, support and enable them to be as effective as possible by sharing information, promoting best practice and encouraging collaboration. The Trust aims to win the hearts and minds of all New Zealanders to make predator control part of their daily lives. How is PFNZ working towards Predator Free 2050? Many of the species we have in New Zealand are only found here and have evolved without the presence of mammalian predators. Most of our native species are in serious trouble, with up to 80 per cent of our native birds in some degree of endangerment. All is not well with our native species and we want people to realise that everyone has a role to play. This isn’t just a problem the government can solve on its own. We try to encourage people to get involved in working towards a predator free New Zealand. This can be anything from trapping in your backyard, to clearing traps on a local reserve, doing accounts for a local community group or building wooden boxes for the traps to go inside. We’re trying to make it easy for people to get involved, so where we see a barrier we try and remove it. For example, it was really difficult for people to source suitable traps, so we now have a range on our website that people can purchase and have delivered to their door. We help connect people to groups in their area so they can get involved. And we collate best practice information and gettingstarted guides to help people along the way. We’ve got a great partnership with Kiwibank that provides funding and support to communities wanting to make their own backyards predator free and help native wildlife thrive. We also work with schools to run predator free programmes. How can communities get involved in helping New Zealand to be free of key predators by 2050? It's actually really easy for communities to get involved. Normally it starts with a couple of people trapping in their backyards and then they tell their friends and neighbours and others start to get involved too; from there it just grows. 8
Pretty soon you start to get a bit of a trap network going and can really reduce the number of predators over an area. It is easy to set and check a trap in your backyard, and most people are happy to do it. Communities often rally together to get materials and other sponsorship to make it happen. It has been great to see the increased connectedness of communities and other benefits they get from working together towards a common goal. The Predator Free movement is really sweeping across the country and there are hundreds of communities all over New Zealand helping native species thrive by removing mammalian predators. There is a role for everyone in this movement and I’ve been pleasantly impressed by people’s willingness to do their bit. There is definitely an increasing awareness of the current biodiversity crisis. People want to protect our unique and iconic species, and are happy to help out however they can. What's the biggest success story so far? Wellington is definitely leading the country in terms of communities involved in backyard trapping. The presence of Zealandia has really helped encourage people to make their backyards safe havens for native birds as they spill out of the fence. However, Wellington is not alone, and we're now seeing a huge number of communities taking on the Predator Free challenge all over the country, which is really encouraging. For example, Russell in the Far North have implemented a backyard trapping programme that supports the work that the community group is doing to help protect and support kiwi in the area. There also appears to be a significant groundswell among farmers and owners of large areas of land wanting to do their bit. We'll need everyone’s input to achieve the ambitious goal of a predator free New Zealand, and the willingness of people to get involved and do their bit has definitely impressed me. Finally, is there a particular species close to your heart that you'd especially like to see thriving in the coming decades? This is a really hard question as there are so many interesting and unique species to choose from. I’m a huge fan of our small native bats, the only land mammals native to New Zealand. Our weta species are also really impressive. But I'm also very fond of our cheeky toutouwai (robins) with tiny twiggy legs and a round body, and the beautiful kererū and mischievous kea have also been favourites of mine for a long time. So it’s hard to name one. Hopefully with increased predator control we’ll see an increase in the abundance and the diversity of species across the country. nzpost.co.nz/stamps
