New Zealand

“Latest figures show native birds have increased by 51 percent on Wellington's Miramar Peninsula. This includes a whopping 550 percent rise in the pīwakawaka / fantail population of, a 275 percent increase in riroriro / grey warblers, and a 49 percent increase in tūī. Possums and one species of rat have already been eliminated, and there are plans to expand the movement as a part of the Predator Free 2050 goal. . . Willcocks said the most damaging predators in Aotearoa were mustelids, stoats, weasels, rats and possums. "Our country is basically at the top of the list in terms of threatened and endangered species. We're saying enough, not on our watch. We want to pass over an environment that's not half trash to the next generation."

- James Willcocks, Predator Free Wellington project director

“. . . a marine heatwave left about two in every five salmon in New Zealand King Salmon's Marlborough Sounds farms dead. More than 1000 tonnes of fish waste were sent to landfill. . . Marine heatwave conditions - when ocean temperatures are above the 90th percentile for at least five days - were common over summer, boosted by the La Niña phenomenon. . . Maren Wellenreuther is an evolutionary ecologist at the University of Auckland and a seafood scientist at Plant and Food Research in Nelson. The top of the South Island may soon be inhospitable to salmon, but other fish could replace them, she said. . . In recent years, the focus has therefore shifted to open ocean aquaculture, which could unlock a new scale of fish farming while also boosting climate resilience.”

"Sharply spiraled weeds, introduced by goldfish owners dumping unwanted tanks, form an impenetrable wall around the lake’s edge. Unable to push through it on their daily commute, the crayfish largely vanished. . . At Lake Rotomā, the tribe found a surprising solution in a centuries-old tool — and added to a pitched debate about how ancestral Māori knowledge can complement conventional science. Te Arawa, which has long used woven flax mats, known as uwhi, to cross water and gather food in shallow swamps, is employing modern diving technology to staple uwhi underwater where aquatic herbicide hasn’t worked or shouldn’t be sprayed. It has helped stop the weed’s growth and create new migration routes for the crayfish. . . Now, for the first time in decades, crayfish in Lake Rotomā have a clear path to old feeding grounds among the plants they relied on for millenniums. “We’ve essentially created new mātauranga,” Mr. O’Neill said before carefully tucking his dreadlocks beneath the cap of his wet suit and slipping into the lake. “And we’re going to use it to finish the last of the lake weed off.” "

"The population of New Zealand's endangered flightless parrot kakapo has increased by 25 per cent in the past year, bringing it up to 252 birds. A good breeding season and success with artificial insemination were behind the increase in kakapos, the New Zealand Department of Conservation said. Introduced predators such as stoats have nearly wiped out the kakapo as the birds cannot fly. The problem has been exacerbated by inbreeding, very low fertility — only 50 per cent of eggs are fertilised — and because they only breed every two or three years when native rimu trees fruit. The population of the kakapo, which is the world's heaviest parrot, is now at its highest number since the 1970s."

“The Government will ban trawl fishing from most of Auckland's Hauraki Gulf, and create 18 new protection areas, in a major new environmental plan. . . Under the Government's long-awaited response to the Sea Change Tai Timu Tai Pari plan for the Hauraki Gulf, which was first published in 2016, fully protected marine areas would increase from less than 0.3 per cent to over 5 per cent of the 1.2 million hectare marine park that stems from Te Arai in the north to Waihi in the south. . . Hauraki Gulf Forum co-chair Tangata Whenua Nicola MacDonald said the plans represented a "first step" towards the forum's ambition for at least 30 per cent marine protection to restore the mauri of Te Moananui-ā-Toi, Tīkapa Moana. . . "This seems to me to be the biggest single initiative to give greater protection to the marine environment in the Hauraki Gulf since the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park was formed over 20 years ago," University of Auckland marine biologist Professor Andrew Jeffs said.”

“Since human arrival there have been dramatic changes to the Gulf – known to Māori as Tīkapa Moana – with decades of destructive fishing methods not only depleting fishing biomass today to less than half the level in 1925, but decimating the seabed, leaving vast sections wastelands. Trevally numbers have plummeted by 86 per cent from historic levels, snapper by 83 per cent, sharks - a key part of the ecosystem - by 86 per cent and dolphins 97 per cent. . . Dredging has stripped the seafloor of all its mussel beds - crucial for filtering the water, reduced scallops to alarmingly low levels, and crayfish/kōura are now regarded "functionally extinct". . . The authors also expressed concern for seabirds, with the Hauraki Gulf a crucial habitat to over 20 per cent of the world's species, and shorebirds. While seabird captures have reduced, the amount making the park, a world-renowned habitat, home classed as "threatened" had increased more than fivefold from 4 to 22 per cent since 2000.”

"In response to the ongoing decline of the health of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park, the Sea Change – Tai Timu Tai Pari process brought together a range of stakeholders and Treaty partners with the sole purpose of developing a marine spatial plan to address the environmental decline in the Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana and provide for social, cultural and economic wellbeing. Developed over 3 years, the Sea Change – Tai Timu Tai Pari Plan (hereafter referred to as the Sea Change Plan), New Zealand’s first marine spatial plan, was launched at the end of 2016. . . the Sea Change Plan proposes a range of marine protected areas (MPAs) to protect and restore habitats and ecosystems. . . The preferred options include extending two existing marine reserves, 11 high protection areas and five seafloor protection areas."

"For the first time in history, New Zealand has announced an ambitious initiative to eliminate rats, stoats, and possums from the country by 2050, in an effort to rid the country of an ecological scourge ravaging its native wildlife . . . By 2025, the New Zealand government hopes to suppress or remove invasive predators from an additional 2.5 million acres (one million hectares) of land—and completely remove all introduced predators from the country’s island nature reserves. The government hopes to finish the job by 2050 largely through the widespread use of traps and poisoned bait, though New Zealand is ready to innovate: It’s a world leader in developing new ways to eradicate invasive mammals."

"Maui’s dolphins (Cephalorhynchus hectori maui) are edging closer to extinction. Strikingly marked, with a dark, rounded dorsal fin that has been likened to a Mickey Mouse ear, the dolphins max out at just four and a half feet long . . . Maui’s dolphins have declined sharply since the 1970s, primarily as a result of accidental entanglement in fishing gear, which drowns or maims hundreds of thousands of cetaceans around the world each year."

"In New Zealand, anything with fur and beady little eyes is an invader, brought to the country by people—either Maori or European settlers. The invaders are eating their way through the native fauna, producing what is, even in an age of generalized extinction, a major crisis . . ."

"Let’s get rid of the lot . . . Let’s get rid of all the predators—all the damned mustelids, all the rats, all the possums—from the mainland."

- Paul Callaghan

Toi tū te Pahu, Toi tū te Tai When Hector’s dolphins are well, so too are our coasts

- Māori whakataukī, relayed to Gemma McGarth from Huata Holmes

"Of the almost 16,000 known marine species in New Zealand, 444 are listed as threatened. Well-known species of concern include the Hector’s dolphin (both subspecies), New Zealand sea lion, southern right whale, Fiordland crested penguin, and New Zealand fairy tern. By international standards, a high proportion (62 per cent) of our ocean-going seabirds are listed as threatened. Two species, the Campbell mollymawk and the black petrel, have shown signs of recovery in recent years. However, over the past three years, seven species have had their threatened species status upgraded."

"The idea of a place to stand runs deep in the values of Maori culture. It's an appreciation Maori have given other New Zealanders. The river and its bounty are like the blood flowing through the body of our place to stand. So it is appropriate that we are here to honour this river with this Mataitai reserve . . . This mataitai reserve is the first freshwater mataitai reserve in New Zealand. Its status as a mataitai identifies this as an important place for customary food gathering. It means commercial fishing is not allowed. Instead, the guidance of the kaitiaki will manage recreational fishing and customary harvest . . . The creation of the mataitai reserve is not an end-point. This is a beginning."

- Jim Anderton, Minister of Fisheries at the opening of the Mataura River Mataitai Reserve