Conservation work at mānuka forests to provide a safeguard for kiwi

Sunday, 3 April 2022

Save the Kiwi executive director Michelle Impey is excited to work with Comvita on the conservation project.

Sites across the North Island used for gathering honey could soon be a home for kiwi.

Mānuka honey company Comvita is working with conservation organisation Save the Kiwi in a sponsorship agreement to help provide more safe habitat for the birds in the North Island.

Comvita has about 15 mānuka forests, mainly across the central North Island, and the first where work will start is at Makino Station, about 1400 hectares of back country near Raetihi in the Ruapehu district.

It is hoped all of Comvita’s properties will one day be Kiwi-safe habitats.

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Comvita chief executive David Banfield says working with Save the Kiwi helps the company fulfil its responsibilities as a business.

Comvita’s head of safety and sustainability Heather Johnston said a kiwi survey was done at Makino station in 2021 which found there were bird species on the property, which gave them the idea for this project, and they started a predator management plan.

She said they would start trapping and hoped to be able to reintroduce kiwi back to the property.

“We have done the baseline survey, we’ll get the traps in, then monitor the traps. Save the Kiwi are the experts, we’re working with them to help them.

“They indicated it takes about five years to become a kiwi-safe habitat, not predator free.”

She said they would love to be able to bring the birds into the area in four or five years and see the population grow.

Stoats and ferrets are their main targets for trapping and there are already a couple of people living on the property who will be able to start the work.

Comvita has numerous mānuka forests across the central North Island.

The project is part of Comvita’s “harmony plan” which has goals for sustainability, improving biodiversity and supporting communities.

The partnership will lead to Comvita's mānuka forests, many of which already are inhabited by kiwi, become sanctuaries for the species through the predator management plans, laying traps, and allowing staff to connect with the programme.

Save the Kiwi executive director Michelle Impey said working with Comvita was a new and exciting approach for kiwi conservation.

“Effective predator control is central to successful kiwi conservation and creating sanctuaries that are free of stoats, ferrets, and other predators is extremely intensive work.

“Comvita owns a number of properties, many of which are already home to kiwi, and it’s so exciting to work alongside and educate them about how we can help the taonga species thrive in the future.”

Comvita will provide annual support for these programmes, including the buying and overseeing of traps at its properties, and providing opportunities for its staff to connect with Save the Kiwi.

Comvita chief executive David Banfield said the partnership was making meaningful steps toward fulfilling Comvita’s responsibilities as a business.

“Everything we do at Comvita is guided by our founding principle of kaitiakitanga, or guardianship and protection over nature, and this underpins our work to create these sanctuaries that will, in time, enable kiwi to flourish.”

He said it balanced their other harmony projects, which the company aimed to keep building through these sorts of conservation efforts and communities.

“We believe we have a contribution to make, and that by undertaking these initiatives we are living our values and fulfilling the steps needed to be the kind of business that we want to be.”

Comvita is committing 1 per cent of its gross earnings to harmony partnerships. It has already committed $151,000 to harmony partnerships in the first half of 2022.

The company has also worked with For the Love of Bees, Saving the Wild and others.