Govt seeking business, philanthropy for predator-free policy 25 Jul 2016
Related articles
- NZ consumers grow more upbeat, may resume spending Business
- NZ looking at all avenues on whaling issue News
- Knowles quits as CEO of KiwiBank Business
- NZ migration bolstered by British invasion Migration
- NZ manufacturing activity reaches highest since 04 Business
- NZ dollar hits 22-month high vs euro Business
- OceanaGold finds new gold deposits at Fraser mine Business
- Transpower gets go-ahead for $170m SI upgrade Business
- Government Widens Drought Assistance News
- NZ home sales creep up in March, still subdued Property
Monday 25 July 2016 05:32 PM
Govt seeking business and philanthropic boost for predator-free policy
By Pattrick Smellie
July 25 (BusinessDesk) - The government is seeking funding from businesses and philanthropists to support its "aspirational" policy, announced today, to make New Zealand predator-free by 2050.
In a bid to shore up its environmental credentials, a phalanx of ministers led by Prime Minister John Key launched the policy this afternoon at Wellington's predator-free fenced bird sanctuary, Zealandia, pledging $7 million a year in new funding for each of the next four years and a series of interim goals, including a 20,000 hectare, unfenced predator-free zone on the New Zealand mainland by 2025.
The policy will be advanced by a new Crown agency, Predator-Free NZ Ltd, which will be established both to pursue eradication and to coordinate the fundraising and scientific efforts required to bring the vision to life.
PFNZ will have a board of directors made up of government, private sector, and scientific members, "to work on each regional project with iwi and community conservation groups and attract $2 of private sector and local government funding for every $1 of government funding," ministers announced.
The hope is that a combination of people power, improved, lower cost trapping techniques, and new technologies such as breeding for infertility and the use of targeted sound and light deterrents can rid areas of pests that prey on New Zealand's native birds, lizards and insects, which are uniquely ill-equipped to combat predators that did not exist in nature before human habitation in the last 1,000 or so years.
Conservation Minister Maggie Barry said it would be essential also to continue using 1080 poison, the controversial primary method of pest control used by the Department of Conservation to poison rats, mice, stoats, ferrets, possums and other introduced predators destroying New Zealand's native bush and fauna.
However, it was possible to see a "1080-free future", she said, while acknowledging the goal of a predator-free country in 34 years' time represented a huge challenge and that $28 million of initial funding was no more than "a good start".
Four key 2025 goals of the project are: an additional 1 million hectares of land where pests have been suppressed or removed through PFNZ partnerships; development of a scientific breakthrough capable of removing at least one small mammalian predator from New Zealand entirely; demonstration that areas of more than 20,000 hectares can be predator-free without the use of fences; and complete removal of all introduced predators from offshore island nature reserves."
(BusinessDesk)
News
Hilary Timmins' Award-Winning UK Documentary Series To Inspire NZ Students
29 Jun 2020 Education
Dream Catchers, produced and directed by Hilary Timmins, celebrates the success stories of more than thirty inspirational New... more
New Zealand reaffirms support for Flight MH17 judicial process
7 Mar 2020 News
Ahead of the start of the criminal trial in the Netherlands on 9 March, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has reaffirmed the need to... more
Business
NZ Government's Economic package to fight COVID-19
17 Mar 2020 Business News
The Coalition Government has launched the most significant peace-time economic plan in modern New Zealand history to cushion the... more
NZ Government announces aviation relief package
19 Mar 2020 Business News
Transport Minister Phil Twyford today outlined the first tranche of the $600 million aviation sector relief package announced earlier... more
Living
Diversity was Key at New Zealand Trade Tasting in London
6 Jun 2022 Food & Wine
New Zealand Winegrowers Annual Trade Tasting was recently held in London, on Wednesday 4 May, in Lindley Hall.
It was the first... more
Kiwi author stuns Behind the Butterfly Gate
12 Jan 2022 Arts
Hidden behind the Butterfly Gate is where the secret has been kept for 76 years...
New Zealand writer Merryn Corcoran’s... more
Property
Fairer rules for tenants and landlords
17 Nov 2019 Property
17 NOVEMBER 2019
The Government has delivered on its promise to the over one million New Zealanders who now rent to make it fairer... more
New Zealand Government will not implement a Capital Gains Tax
17 Apr 2019 Property
The Coalition Government will not proceed with the Tax Working Group’s recommendation for a capital gains tax, Jacinda Ardern... more
Migration
Boosting border security with electronic travel authority – now over 500,000 issued
19 Nov 2019 Migration
19 NOVEMBER 2019
We’ve improved border security with the NZeTA, New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority, which helps us to... more
Christchurch reinstated as refugee settlement location
18 Aug 2018 Migration
18 AUGUST 2018
HON IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY
The announcement that Christchurch can once again be a settlement location for refugees... more
Travel
Gallipoli Anzac Day services cancelled
19 Mar 2020 Travel & Tourism
The New Zealand and Australian Governments have announced this year’s joint Anzac Day services at Gallipoli will be cancelled... more
New Zealanders advised not to travel overseas
19 Mar 2020 Travel & Tourism
New Zealanders advised not to travel overseas
more
Sport
The Skipper's Diary: Sir Richard Hadlee honouring his father and NZ's Forty-Niners
27 Oct 2019 Cricket
NZNewsUK London Editor Charlotte Everett spoke to Sir Richard Hadlee about why he’s chosen to publish his father’s... more
PREVIEW: All Blacks v England semi-final
26 Oct 2019 Rugby
The two most convincing quarterfinals winners are set to square off in a semifinal showdown for the ages when the All Blacks meet old... more
Columns
Gordon Campbell on the Gareth Morgan crusade
11 Nov 2016 Opinion
Gordon Campbell on the Gareth Morgan crusade
First published on Werewolf
The ghastly likes of Marine Le Pen in France and Geert ... more
Gordon Campbell on the US election outcome
10 Nov 2016 Opinion
Column - Gordon Campbell
Gordon Campbell on the US election outcome
Well um.. on the bright side, there (probably)... more
Kiwi Success
Congratulations to Loder Cup winner
26 Sep 2018 People
25 SEPTEMBER 2018
The Loder Cup, one of New Zealand’s oldest conservation awards, has been awarded to Robert McGowan for 2018... more
Appointments to New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO
16 Aug 2018 Appointments
16 AUGUST 2018Appointments to New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO
HON JENNY SALESA
Associate Education Minister Jenny Salesa is... more
Recruitment
Historic pay equity settlement for education support workers
14 Aug 2018 Recruitment
14 AUGUST 2018Historic pay equity settlement for education support workers
RT HON JACINDA ARDERN
HON CHRIS HIPKINS
Prime Minister
The... more
Historic pay equity settlement for education support workers
22 Aug 2018 Recruitment
14 AUGUST 2018Historic pay equity settlement for education support workers
RT HON JACINDA ARDERN
HON CHRIS HIPKINS
Prime Minister
The... more