Predator-free efforts align with tikanga Māori - iwi leader

Photo: Auckland Council

Tāmaki Makaurau conservation groups, iwi and council are welcoming $10 million in government funding to bolster the city's Predator-Free 2050 efforts.

The five-year funding boost will support work already being done across the Hauraki Gulf, building on the government's wider Predator-Free 2050 programme, which aims to eliminate introduced predators such as rats, possums, stoats, ferrets and weasels by 2050.

It follows a similar scheme announced for Wellington earlier this year, where the government pledged $5.5m in funding.

The deal will see council, communities, mana whenua and the philanthropy group NEXT Foundation partner up to strengthen predator-free safe havens like Tiritiri Matangi, speed up eradication work on Waiheke, Kawau and Great Barrier Islands, and support Auckland's first urban mainland predator elimination project.

Minister of Conservation Tama Potaka announced the funding on Friday, and opened with a whakataukī.

"Toitū te marae ātea a Tangaroa a Hinemoana, toitū te marae ātea a Tāne Mahuta a Hineahuone, toitū te taiao," he said.

"The sea of Tangaroa and Hinemoana will endure, the forest and the birds of Tāne Mahuta and Hineahuone will endure, and nature will endure."

Native manu Tīeke (saddleback) on Little Barrier Island.

Photo: Leon Berard

Potaka said the money would reinforce the "good mahi" already being done across the city and its islands.

"Ambition's always been the heart of conservation and the eradication of predators from offshore islands was considered impossible, but you're doing it, we're doing it. As Muhammad Ali would say, 'me, we'.

"We want Auckland to tackle the next generation of predator elimination challenges and build on those decades of success, recognising that Auckland's a unique place to help lead this work because of all the enthusiasm and all the science and research capability you've got here, but also the action."

Asked how much it would cost to make all of the country predator-free by 2050, Potaka said the figure would probably be in the "hundreds of millions, rather than the tens of millions".

"That's the sort of work that people like NEXT will undertake, alongside council and Department of Conservation, in order to really grip up, and doing it a little bit at a time, like peninsulas - a lot easier to do than just going large landscape.

"It's ambitious and we're out there to achieve it, but we've got to get going on it and not just ideologise and write about it, and that's why we're so enthusiastic about getting involved here in Auckland alongside the council, communities, and iwi, who have a huge aspiration to do this, and being involved in iwi in Auckland myself over the years I can see the absolute energy and tenacity to get on and do things."

Minister of Conservation Tama Potaka announced the funding on Friday, opening with a whakataukī acknowleging ngā ātua Māori: "Toitū te marae ātea a Tangaroa a Hinemoana, toitū te marae ātea a Tāne Mahuta a Hineahuone, toitū te taiao."

Photo: Layla Bailey-McDowell / RNZ

Speaking to RNZ, Ngāti Manuhiri Settlement Trust chair Terrence 'Mook' Hohneck said any additional investment in conservation was welcome, despite the scale of the challenge facing native species.

"You see it's the $10m that has been put on the table for conservation outcomes. It's very minimal, but any announcement, any addition to what we're already dealing with in the current budget and framework right throughout the country is good.

"It's pleasing, very pleasing."

While acknowledging the significance of the investment, Hohneck said larger investments would be needed to achieve conservation goals nationwide.

"It isn't a lot of money, $10m, but we've got to keep moving forward and we've got to take every step in a positive way.

"It's $10m that's going to a good outcome. It would be better if it was $100m, dare I say, but we'll take the $10m and move forward."

The funding will support predator-free projects already underway throughout the region, including work on islands in the Hauraki Gulf and Auckland's first urban mainland predator elimination project.

Hohneck said Ngāti Manuhiri's role was to ensure mātauranga Māori and tikanga remained central to environmental restoration efforts.

"Our role simply is to make sure that our own values and our own mātauranga as Ngāti Manuhiri, Manuhiritanga, and for the rest of the tangata whenua within our rohe and our neighbours, that our own values and principles and tikanga are upheld," he said.

"Alongside those of the community, of the wider community and the wider groups that are all putting effort and time in for the conservation outcomes."

Ngāti Manuhiri Settlement Trust Chair Terrence “Mook” Hohneck has welcomed the $10 million dollar investment.

Photo: Layla Bailey-McDowell / RNZ

Hohneck said predator control aligned with tikanga Māori, because many of the species being targeted were introduced to Aotearoa.

"A lot of the predators are introduced species. So we have no tikanga around them but to exterminate them because they don't belong here.

"If we're preaching to have a natural environment, then we don't want any unwanted natural pests… Unless it's indigenous to our lands, well then it's not a taonga."

He said he would like to see iwi leading conservation efforts within their own rohe and managing environmental outcomes according to their own tikanga and kawa.

"I'd like to see iwi managing our own conservation outcomes under our own tikanga and kawa within our own rohe. But I realise that's a big aspiration, it's a big goal, and we can't do it alone."

He said achieving that vision would require support from communities, government agencies and conservation partners.

"But to lead that charge would be really rewarding for ourselves, knowing that our own tikanga, our own mātauranga, our own manuhiritanga in our case, is upheld to the highest level."

Photo: Department of Conservation

The announcement was also welcomed by the NEXT Foundation, which confirmed it would co-invest alongside government and Auckland Council to help accelerate predator-free initiatives across the rohe.

NEXT Foundation chief executive Andrew Grant said predator elimination was about restoring abundance to the environment and creating a healthier future for coming generations.

"We lose 25 million indigenous native birds a year. Just to put that in perspective, last night we lost 70,000 birds and we lose 70,000 birds every night.

"I think now is the time… we've now learned the techniques, we've invested for a long time. We didn't know some of the pathways, some of the ways to do that responsibly, ethically, in a way that it was also consistent with mana whenua and being respectful there.

"But we do now know, we know how to do this in an urban environment.

"It's not just about removing the predators - it's about restoring the whenua, and it's about bringing back the dawn chorus to our mokopuna."

Hohneck said signs of that restoration could already be heard.

"I'm lucky. I hear the dawn chorus every morning where I particularly reside," he said.

"In saying that, the dawn chorus, it's out there. It is there. We just need to enhance it more and let it be heard further afield."

He said success would be measured not only by predator numbers, but by the return of native species and a stronger connection between people and the environment.

"So that we can all hear it together."

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