The Government has announced new conservation programmes worth nearly $19 million ranging from weed control to endangered species protection.
Conservation Minister Sandra Lee yesterday detailed how the funding, announced in the Budget, would be spent.
The programmes are:
* $6.9 million for pest control, to be invested in work with possums, goats and
thar. There will be new programmes to control wallaby populations.
* $4.6 million for invasive weed control, targeting the Southland conifer project and conservation sites at Molesworth in Marlborough and Bream Head near Whangarei.
There will be 27 projects to eradicate new weeds including kangaroo acacia in Northland, purple loosestrife in Canterbury and marram in Fiordland.
* $3.8 million for species recovery work, including birds in the South Island beech forests and fishes in the Kauru River in North Otago.
* $2 million for an information programme aimed at filling "priority gaps" in knowledge about the distribution of plant and animal species, ecosystems and habitats.
* $1.8 million for offshore island pest eradication, including targeting rats and wild cats on Raoul Island.
- NZPA
nzherald.co.nz/environment
