Project Janszoon gaining ecological footholds in Abel Tasman National Park

Friday, 1 January 2016

It started as a multimillion-dollar test case. Three years later Project Janszoon in the Abel Tasman National Park illustrates what could be a way ahead for conservation in New Zealand.

To date it has seen thousands of  pests trapped, poisoned and monitored, kaka and kakariki returned, habitats and ecologies assessed, wildlife counted, forests planted, weeds removed and accolades won.

Project Janszoon director Devon McLean said he was excited by the gains.

'You can see it in the populations of birds and the work happening around the translocations and plans for the re-introduction of brown teal and  blue duck.'

Proposals were also afoot to release robin and it was hoped tuatara would one day recolonise Tonga Island.

He said the project's education section was getting real traction. It has a student advisory board, made up of students from  its school's Adopt a Section programme. Schools involved included Golden Bay and Motueka high schools and Motupipi School.

In addition groups like the tourism operators' Abel Tasman Birdsong Trust, which was protecting and restoring bird populations through trapping and funding, and Golden Bay-based Project De Vine which was starting to build as volunteers began the huge task of tackling invasive weeds around the  park's borders, were both vital to the project's success.

Importantly the project team was starting to gel. 'Our first Christmas celebration was a group of people who did not  know each other  very well. The other night we had 110 people — it was like a big family reunion and  they were all very proud.'

McLean believed the philanthropic model was a way forward for  national conservation.

Project Janszoon is funded by the Next Foundation. Auckland couple Annette and Neal Plowman contributed $100m in 2014 to establish the charitable foundation to kick start high impact environmental and educational projects.

McLean said the 22,500 hectare Abel Tasman National Park was the test case which encouraged the Plowman's to establish the foundation. McLean previously worked with the family trust to restore the 83-hectare Rotoroa Island in Auckland's Hauraki Gulf.

In early December the foundation announced the 34,000 ha Project Taranaki Mounga which aims to make Egmont National Park the first predator-free national park.

The question of who would fund the projects long term was answered when the Government and the Foundation signed the Tomorrow Accord last year.

The agreement commits the Government to maintaining qualifying projects once they have achieved agreed ecological indicators.

 'We are having discussion with the Department of Conservation now focussing on the indicators,' McLean said.

Such markers would include a project's proven ability to sustain sensitive species, such as mohua or northern rata — both  of  which  are  highly susceptible to  pests and predators. Success with weed species would demand their eradication.

Both parties were keen to see the model work, McLean said.

'We use philanthropic funds to the best advantage and take more risks than the Government would. But we learn from those risks and we can apply that to the Taranaki project.

'We need to attract other philanthropists to see the benefits.  I think philanthropy will always be a relatively small  source of funding for what is needed - the guys with the deep pockets are central and local government.

'But if we can show what is practical I think it is the way forward  —  while all the time having an eye on the predator-free dream through a landscape-style method.'

Landscape-style conservation was illustrated in Project Taranaki Mounga, which climbs from sea level to 2500m. It is described as the country's first climate change resilient conservation project, because species could shift altitude to suit temperature changes.

'We need more sites like  this in New Zealand so we can secure the majority of terrestrial biodiversity. Twenty years down the track the Government will be spending money shifting coastal infrastructure not on conservation.'

McLean said 2016 signalled a continuation of the project's war on weeds, a northern rata planting programme, the return of more bird species, more bird surveys, work on replanting the mobile coastal dunes at Anchorage, continued work on understanding pest trapping and pest habitat and the concept of a snail sanctuary at Canaan.

'I think we can achieve a surprising amount in a short time — and I would really like to thank everyone who has put their shoulder to the wheel. The way the wider community is responding is really exciting.'