Predator-free subantarctic island gives glimpse of what NZ could be

Friday, 24 February 2017

It's remote and cold, but beautiful.

Within 20 minutes walking we have seen yellow eyed penguins, sea lions, southern royal albatross and listened to bird song in a stand of flowering rata trees.

This is predator-free Enderby Island, 460km south of Bluff and part of the subantarctic Auckland Islands group.

The small wind-swept Enderby Island in the vast Southern Ocean gives a glimpse of what a predator-free New Zealand could look like, conservation minister Maggie Barry says.

Barry visited the Auckland Islands this week courtesy of the HMNZS Otago warship. 

'When you come to a place like this you are looking at New Zealand the way it ought to be.

'To have a place free of predators is a wonderful thing.'

The bold, some would say impossible, aim to have New Zealand predator free by 2050 is gathering steam.

The predator free focus is aimed at exterminating the country's rats, stoats and possums, because they are the biggest threat to the nation's native plant and birdlife.

A company called Predator Free 2050, a Government-owned entity with a board of directors, has been set up to help achieve the aim.

It has specific mandates; developing ways of eradicating pests, launching large scale eradication programmes, leveraging investment from other sources and linking with other groups that do pest control.

Warren Parker, chairman of the New Zealand Conservation Authority and a director of Predator Free 2050, said the eradication of possums, rats and stoats by 2050 was a focused goal.  

'It's audacious, but so was putting people on the moon.'

Predators had been wiped out on numerous islands, so who was to say they couldn't be wiped out on the country's main islands, he said from the Auckland Islands.

Technology was improving in the battle to kill predators and a bigger tool box was now available, and it would grow as technology advanced.

Walking around Enderby Island, Parker said its abundant mammal, bird and plant life, which had sprung back after pests were eradicated in past decades, showed what it was like before human impact.

'Even just walking a couple of kilometres, we have seen sea lions and penguins, gone through rata stands, a windswept area with mega herbs … and the bird life, giant albatross, dotterels.

'This is a window into what a predator free environment looks like.' 

Southern South Island Department of Conservation boss Allan Munn, also among the contingent that went to the Auckland Islands, likened the battle against the rats, stoats and possums on the mainland to fighting a war.

World War 2 was fought from the land, air and sea, he said.

'We [DoC] know how to shoot things, trap things and poison things … but on the side we must work carefully on new ideas.'

The Predator Free 2050 goal was aspirational, he said.

'We know we can make progress, as we have on the islands.

'But we are hoping at some point in the next 30 years we will have a breakthrough [in technology] so we can achieve those big goals.'

Munn believed New Zealanders valued the wilderness more than they used to, saying the conservation of things was really important to the culture of the country.

'And it's important to who we are, and it's becoming increasingly important to our economy.'

Arihia Bennett, chief executive of te Runanga o Ngai Tahu and a Predator Free 2050 board member, said the Auckland Islands showed the results of protecting the environment and it was something to aspire to on the mainland. 

The government was pumping an initial investment of $27m into the Predator-Free 2050 project, but $600m was earmarked for the entire project by 2050. 

For every dollar the crown put in, the aim was to get $3 or $4 from outside sources such as philanthropists, businesses and others.

But the public was needed to help with the war on predators, including private landowners and groups already killing pests in their communities.

Parker said the goal had a clear focus, 'start village by village, community by community. We will get there'.

If the challenge was met, the results would be impressive.

New Zealand's native plant species were 'very tasty' for possums so if they were gone the trees would regenerate.

'And when you get plant life recovering you get bird life coming back,' Parker said.

And without the rats and stoats, more chicks would survive.

'If those pests aren't there, we don't need to use [1080] toxin.'

The Predator Free 2050 programme was launched last year and Barry believed it was resonating with New Zealanders.

'My goal is no other government can walk away from it because it's so embedded in the New Zealand psyche.'

'If you get something embedded enough, it will survive anything.'