Predator Free 2050 'dream' called too costly, too unlikely at Biological Heritage conference

Tuesday, 21 May 2019

New Zealand has a plan to become predator free by 2050, but not everyone agrees that's possible.

More than 4000 native New Zealand plants and animals, including the kererū and the kiwi are at risk of extinction - despite community conservation efforts.

According to New Zealand's report to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity only one in 10 adults actively help with conservation – a figure that hasn't improved since 2014.

At a panel discussion at the New Zealand's Biological Heritage conference Crazy and Ambitious on Tuesday, Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research science team leader Bruce Warburton said he thought eradicating pests by 2050 was just a dream.

**READ MORE:

The Tītipounamu, known as the rifleman bird, is at risk and declining in New Zealand. (File photo)

* 4000 native species still under threat of extinction, despite change

* Kiwis must change to achieve predator-free NZ

A Predator Free 2050 would mean the complete eradication of seven species: three species of rats, three species of mustelids and possums.

* A million species are threatened with extinction

* Abel Tasman offshore islands declared 'predator free'**

Predator Free Wellington want to eradicate all pests from Miramar Peninsula this year - a world first for a sprawling urban area,

'It could all become a nightmare, and I think there's a small possibility of that happening.'

He said a more achievable goal could be making the Otago, Banks, Mahia or Coromandel peninsula predator free.

Complete eradication was very different to 'sustained control', he said.

'There's a huge difference between a 98 per cent kill and a 100 per cent kill.'

A 95 to 98 per cent kill with 1080 operations cost $30-$40 a hectare, but a 100 per cent kill and total eradication would cost $200,000 to 500,000 a hectare, he said.

'We can't afford to do that on the mainland, even if we had the social licence to do that.'

A self-disseminating tool for predator control could lower the cost, but Warburton doubted that could be developed by 2050.

New Zealand needed better leadership and a national strategy in place.

'Until we have that, we sort of have these disparate actions going on all over the place and nothing pulling that together.'

MC and writer Alison Ballance said as a member of Predator Free Mt Victoria in Wellington, she was concerned that hundreds of backyard trappers were not checking their traps.

Renters were particularly apathetic, she said.

Department of Conservation threatened species ambassador Nicola Toki said she thought it was possible, but the goal needed 'reframing' to the public.

Predator Free needed to be seen as a natural, cultural and wellbeing package for who people were as New Zealanders.

Instead of focusing on the cost, people needed to focus on the value of the outcome, she said.

To achieve the dream to be Predator Free by 2050 would require 'transformative change', she said.

'It means actually re-thinking everything we're doing and how. It's entirely about the people.'

The conference was a two-day event held at Te Papa in Wellington.

A BioHeritage Challenge report released on Monday says New Zealand could be pest-free in 30 years, but that will rely at least in part on more New Zealanders changing their behaviour.