Conservation funding dries up, threatening Waikato bird-protection projects

RNZ News

2 days ago

Left to right, Maryann Eason, Jude Tisdall, Tiaki Ormsby, Janet Leggett, Nardene Berry, and Jo Wrigley at Eason's farm homestead, with Maungatautari Sanctuary Mountain behind.
Photo:
RNZ/Libby Kirkby-McLeod
Maryann Eason's Maungatautari farm homestead was on the edge of 'Bush to Burbs', a
project to protect bird spillover
from the Maungatautari Sanctuary Mountain.
"Hanging out in the magnolia tree was nine kaka and four bellbirds and two tuis, and there were fantails flying all around," she said of the birds she now saw on her property.
Eason had planted more than 800,000 trees on the farm and, with the neighbouring property-owner, worked on pest-trapping for the area to protect birds that leave the inland fenced sanctuary at Maungatautari.
'Bush to Burbs' was one of several projects between Pirongia and Maungatautari, which aimed to bring back endangered species and provide safe corridors for animals to travel the 45km between the two mountains.
Another project - Taiea te Taiao - also
helped private landowners
return a pest-free bird friendly habitat across the area.
Nardene Berry from Landcare Trust said some native birds wouldn't cross more than three kilometres of pastureland.
"What we are trying to do is create stepping stones for the birds to cross the landscape in a way that they can do so safely," she said.
The benefits weren't just for the birds.
"What people forget is that we are part of nature," Berry said. "Biodiversity is part of us and we are part of it, so having that in our backyards or close by on our farms is so vital for our wellbeing."
Tiaki Ormsby from Pirongia Te Aroaro o Kahu Restoration Society said the group's Matariki event was a good example of the benefits to people connecting with natural places. The group took whanau onto parts of Pironga to walk in the steps of their ancestors and find out about the ecology on the mountain.
"To be able to go back on our maunga in a safe way, it was quite magical," she said.
However, Berry said keeping these and other projects in Waikato would become harder.
Government funding had dried up and philanthropic investment in biodiversity had halved to only two percent over the last few years.
"Sometimes, projects can get started, and they get some funding to get going and there's stuff behind that, but to keep it going, that's the hard part," she said.
Go Eco was the environmental group behind the Bush to Burbs project and chief executive Jo Wrigley agreed funding was currently difficult.
She said there was a cycle of government funding that enabled projects, but didn't continue to help maintain them.
"Every government wants to see environmental projects scaled up, but the funding is not usually scaled up," she said.
An example was the billion-dollar 'Jobs For Nature' project, which the government stopped funding in June.
Jude Tisdall is a long-time volunteer for Waikato environmental groups in her area. She said some projects, like pest control in the Kaimai Range, occur on steep, dangerous country and really should be undertaken by professionals.
Jobs for Nature trained people to do that work, but she said many were young people who needed paid employment and,
when funding went, so did skilled workers
.
Pirongia Te Aroaro o Kahu Restoration Society helped with pest-trapping on Pirongia, where blue-wattled kōkako were returned in 2017.
Janet Leggett, who wrote many of the society's funding applications, said the group also had the vision to see kiwi back on the mountain, but finding funding had been become harder and harder.
"The pool is shrinking," she said. "Our major funding sources are the government-funding sources, but the Department of Conservation hasn't been able to fund us for the last two years."
The group received funding from Waikato Regional Council and other groups, such as Lotteries, but Leggett said they received less than half of what they applied for.
Not just new projects could be affected. Leggett feared the progress already been made to reduce pests could also be reversed.
"It's not going to take long for things to regress, and the possum and rat numbers to build up, and the birdlife to be affected," she said. "It's at a point now where it's really critical."
Wrigley said, as funding contracted, progress had to rely on other things.
"The work is ultimately kept going through relationships between whanau, hapu and communities," she said.
The vision for restoring nature in Waikato was big. These groups just hoped that austerity in the funding sector didn't set back the progress.
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