World's biggest island predator eradication project to start on Stewart Island

Wednesday, 6 July 2022

A research partnership agreement worth $2.8 million has been signed to make Stewart Island predator free.

Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research and Predator Free Rakiura have teamed up for the project that will run for four years, with the initiative to eradicate all major predators – possums, rats, feral cats and hedgehogs from Rakiura.

A predator eradication project of this combined size and complexity has never been attempted before.

This would be the biggest island predator eradication ever attempted globally and would also be a world-first predator free project on an inhabited island.

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Rakiura is around 180,000 hectares in size and has a population of 400 permanent residents.

As a haven for native species, a predator-free Rakiura would protect those taonga for generations to come and enable nature and community to thrive.

Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research wildlife management and conservation ecology portfolio leader Chris Jones said the South Georgia (an island in the South Atlantic Ocean) rat eradication was across about 350,000 hectares, but the island only has 20-30 people living there.

“Lord Howe island at around 1450 hectares is another island eradication of predators … that has been completed, and it has a community of about 350 people,” he said.

What differentiated Rakiura was both its size (around 180,000 hectares) and that it had a diverse community of around 400-450 people that live on the island, Jones said.

“Unless someone else gets there first, Predator Free Rakiura will be the largest predator eradication to date globally with a community of this size,” he said.

Jones said specific research goals had yet to be developed, however, part of the wider programme could be understanding the conditions that led to incursions and what the most appropriate management interventions could be.

“One of the most exciting things about this partnership is that the knowledge gaps that research will aim to fill will be identified collaboratively by our researchers alongside the PFR project leaders and community,” he said.

Predator Free Rakiura project director Campbell Leckie said the agreement for research would enable a significant number of individual research projects each year.

That would help to explore predator behaviour, predator distribution and density, and the social and economic impacts of a project of this size and complexity, he said.

“It will also help us understand the tools and techniques we may need to use, in multiple trials, to be successful.

“The scale and amount of research also means we can involve many people of different backgrounds in the research, which is central to building confidence and trust in a successful eradication,” Leckie said.

Te Ao Marama kaupapa taiao manager and Te Puka Rakiura Trust co-chairperson Dean Whaanga said presently Rakiura was in a state of pōuri or sadness.

“On the surface a visitor might see the beautiful treasure that it is, however its true mana and mauri will be recognised when the indigenous species return in numbers as seen by our ancestors, that the biodiversity and its mauri is such that traditional practices like mahinga kai, rongoa are undertaken as of right, sustainably, without a feeling of impingement on a struggling environment.

“The Mana and the Mauri of Rakiura, its maintenance and protection, the vitality of place, is extremely important to Ngāi Tahu as Kaitiaki,” he said.

Forest & Bird spokesperson Dean Baigent-Mercer said freeing Stewart Island from introduced predators was a massively ambitious and important vision that would pave the way for environmental protection in the rest of New Zealand, and the world.