We are running out of room for kākāpō - but is a move to Wellington too costly?

Thursday, 16 December 2021

In conservation legend, one of the last kākāpō sighted in the wild was seen deep in an old grove forest in the hills above the Hutt Valley.

An audacious plan could see the ungainly, giant parrots return to those forested slopes, a century after the species was extirpated from the North Island.

Proposals to fence off 3350 hectares of native bush behind Wainuiomata could revive the populations of four threatened species: kākāpō, hihi/stitchbird, rowi/Ōkārito kiwi, and kōkako.

But the future of the eco-sanctuary now rests with Treasury officials and Cabinet ministers, who must now decide whether to fund the establishment of the $40 million eco-sanctuary, over the next 10 years.

The first round of ‘Budget Bids’ – what officials recommend to ministers about their future spending – was submitted earlier this month.

Over coming weeks they will be whittled down and negotiated until May’s Budget is presented by Finance Minister Grant Robertson.

The process is secretive – the Department of Conservation can’t even confirm to Stuff whether the sanctuary featured on its wish list. The process is made more complicated by a new requirement for agencies to align their budgets with others in their ‘‘cluster’’ – in this case with the Ministry for the Environment and the Ministry for Primary Industries.

But Greater Wellington Regional Council is confident. Councillor Thomas Nash dreams of a kākāpō paradise, with the flightless oddity’s booming call echoing through the valley, and kōkako bouncing in the tree-tops.

“It’s an amazing place. Apparently, the last sighting in the region of the kākāpō was in Wainuiomata – no way of verifying that of course, but it's what people say,” he says.

“And the rowi is important because it’s Wellington’s kiwi. It is the kiwi that would have been hanging around.

“Then there is the history. It's the only old growth forest in the Wellington region, certainly of its size. It was saved from milling because in the late 1800s people thought: ‘we need to think ahead about Wellington's water supply as a growing city. And this is a perfect catchment’.

“So they saved it from logging. And it has remained as a water catchment, and will remain as a water catchment forever.”

He believes restoring native ecosystems, boosting biodiversity and rebuilding natural infrastructure are “core tasks” for regional councils.

In 2020, the Government launched Te Mana o te Taiao, a strategy to tackle the biodiversity crisis, which puts one million species at risk worldwide, including more than 4000 native to New Zealand.

Almost half of our bird species are extinct, and 80 per cent of those remaining are perilously close to the edge because of introduced predators and habitat loss.

Late last month Conservation Minister Kiritapu Allan visited the lush rainforest where the sanctuary will be created, in the Wainuiomata Water Catchment. Robertson, who is also Wellington Central MP, is understood to be keen on the idea.

And crucially, DOC and mana whenua Taranaki Whānui ki Te Upoko o Te Ika both back the scheme. They would form a partnership with the regional council to create and manage the sanctuary.

Ihaia Puketapu, of Taranaki Whānui, said: “None of our people dared to dream of trying to do something like this.

“Jim Lynch, who founded Zealandia, he dared to dream. It’s huge. Zealandia proved the technology works.

“Having the ability to reintroduce a multitude of manu [birds] Māori to our ngahere [forest] and increase the numbers of re-emerging manu such as kākā is extremely exciting.

“Equally, having the opportunity to be active kaitiaki, defending the fence line, and re-establishing a relationship with our manu Māori that our tūpuna [ancestors] once had, is akin to getting a second chance at something that was once never thought possible.”

Once one of the most common bird species in New Zealand, just over kākāpō 200 remain, confined to three offshore, pest-free islands: Codfish Island/Whenua Hou, west of Stewart Island; Anchor Island in Tamatea/Dusky Sound; and Te Hauturu-o-Toi/Little Barrier Island, in the Hauraki Gulf. Conservation management, and the intensive breeding programme needed to maintain their survival, is expensive.

The Wainuiomata catchment’s rimu are what make the perfect haven for breeding kākāpō. The birds only breed in mast years, and chicks hatch when the fruit begins to ripen.

If the Budget bid is successful, it would pit the Wellington region against Waikato in a race to be the first place where kākāpō were reintroduced to the mainland. Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari began exploring the idea and testing predator fences in 2019.

But the sanctuary is not designed to be a tourist attraction – with only a small portion around an existing sealed road opened to the public.

Mark Fitzpatrick, DOC’s director of terrestrial science, said: “There are many benefits from the project, including the potential for kākāpō breeding habitat in the near future, as well as a potential predator-free location for other species like rowi and hihi further down the track.

“For kākāpō, the convenient location would also mean a lower carbon footprint for ongoing species management.”

In pre-European times, hihi were found throughout the North Island but became extinct on the mainland in the early 1880s. They are slowly being reintroduced to predator-free havens, such as Bushy Park Tarapuruhi, near Whanganui.

Rowi are the rarest of the five species of kiwi, with only 500 left alive. Their only natural population is in South Westland, with the remaining 50 or so translocated to two predator-free islands in the Marlborough Sounds.

Fitzpatrick said the nature reserve “could certainly make a difference” to species recovery.

“Given the low population of these species currently, even a small increase in their population could be classified as significant, particularly if that increase were in a new, safe location,” he said.

But DOC does have reservations. Its support is conditional because it doesn’t want funding for the project eating into existing budgets, or diverting spending from other biodiversity work.

“The project should be run as a stand-alone entity, albeit in partnership with mana whenua, GWRC and DOC, that can operate without the allocation of existing conservation funding,” Fitzpatrick said.

Forest & Bird shares these concerns, and says the concept is “misguided”.

“Forest & Bird is worried a new predator-proof fence in Wellington would divert funding from DOC, which is already one of the most impoverished government departments,” Wellington-based conservation manager Amelia Geary said.

“If Greater Wellington wants to fund the whole project and continue the financial upkeep for the foreseeable future then Forest & Bird won't stand in the way, but we suggest that much better use of their funds would be to focus on making the Wellington region predator-free and supporting landscape-focused solutions.

“Forest & Bird think the best way to support kākāpō recovery is to support DOC and the community in Oban to make Rakiura [Stewart Island] predator-free. That would be a massive win for Aotearoa, and kākāpō.

“Rakiura is 1700 square kilometres … while it would cost more, there are much wider benefits for nature on Rakiura, including the dotterel species that only breed in the mountains of Rakiura and is just surviving thanks to regular feral cat control.”

Some experts believe conservation will evolve away from fenced sanctuaries, as the Predator Free 2050 campaign gathers pace.

And Geary worries about the long-term price-tag. “The main issue with fences is that they are fixed. There’s no possibility of expansion, and it's much more cost-effective over a big area to do landscape scale protection,” she said.

“Predator-proof fences are expensive relative to the amount of land they protect. On top of that Wainuiomata is steep and is around a water catchment. It just takes a big rain event, and you've got big maintenance bill – regularly.

‘’’Also, building the fence means deforestation because predator-free fences have large vegetation-free buffers.”

Nash understands that people are worried about “bang for buck”.

“The resistance seems to be that people don't want to use their existing biodiversity budgets, and existing money for threatened species. And that's totally reasonable,” he says.

“Nobody wants to cut into existing operational baselines or existing money for threatened species.

“We are convinced this project can attract new money to conservation. We think a separate standalone appropriation within Budget 2022 is needed for the 10-year envelope of capital and operational expenditure for the whole operation.”

That roughly $40m would build a track around the ridge line, a fence and eradicate all predators within its enclosure. The fence would replace an existing deer barrier. It would also reduce the costs – and carbon footprint – of offshore island operations.

An estimated 47 short-term jobs, over the two-year construction of the sanctuary, and 16 permanent jobs would be created.

And the topography of the area would allow pest control to stretch over into the neighbouring Orongorongo Valley, Nash said. “The benefits are enormous.”

Puketapu agrees the number of trees felled along the ridgeline will be “significant”. The corridor for the fence will be 10 metres wide, and 15km long to keep predators out.

The predominant species is beech – and Puketapu says felled tawhai (silver beech) can be used for carving. Some will be sold to help offset the cost of the sanctuary.

Others will be integrated into a marae complex and whare wānanga (house of learning), at the entrance to the sanctuary, where eco-friendly technology would blend with traditional design.

Puketapu hopes that will include a manu hospital and whare kōhanga (nesting house) where the artificial insemination of kākāpō could take place.

“Ideally, we don’t want to be felling trees in an old grove forest, but the sacrifice is worth it for the reciprocating benefits that will go back to Tāne [the god of forests and birds],” he said.

Convincing officials, ministers and other humans is one thing. But what about the birds?

Otago University’s Bruce Robertson has provided conservation genetics advice to DOC's Kākāpō Recovery Team for over 20 years.

“An eco-sanctuary sounds good. But kākāpō present a bit of a problem, because usually the fences are excluder fences – they're designed to keep things out, but not keep things in.

“Kākāpō can climb – and they are really good at it. And then they’d be out there with all the predators. So you’d have to design a fence that would keep them in.

“You can get around that by tracking them a lot. But the reality is, you don't want to be setting up a high maintenance study site, because DOC don’t have the budget.”

Diseases prevalent on the mainland, like parrot beak and feather disease or avian malaria, or in introduced species, could also be a risk to the fragile population. “They do have lower levels of genetic diversity at the immunity genes, so that’s a problem.”

Robertson says older males would probably be introduced at first, to see how the birds fare in new habitat. But a breeding programme is costly and time-consuming. “Kākāpō, on the whole, don’t do terribly well if left to their own devices. They do need a lot of wing-holding.”

But he still supports the idea – mainly because we are running out of room for the growing parrot population.

“Kākāpō have got to the point now where they really do need bigger areas. One of the next offshore islands they're looking at is Coal Island [Te Puka-Hereka] in Fiordland.

“But beyond that, if they have another really good breeding season coming, they're going to have to find places for all these offspring, which is a good situation to be in.

“The next logical thing is to start looking for large tracts of mainland. And obviously, these eco-sanctuaries spring to mind.”