DoC losing battle to save rarest species

By ANNE BESTON

The Department of Conservation is failing to stop the slide to extinction of more than half of New Zealand's rare plants and wildlife.

Data revealed for the first time in the department's annual report to Parliament show DoC is fighting a losing battle.

A detailed breakdown of its work for New Zealand's rarest species shows that of 2400 birds, reptiles and plants on the threatened list, 800 are in the top acutely or chronically threatened category.

Acutely threatened means at serious risk of imminent extinction and includes the kakapo, black stilt, takahe and orange-fronted parakeet.

The report says that preventing the extinction of native species, a key reason for DoC's existence, presents a huge challenge.

Kokako and kiwi will disappear altogether from some areas and it is "important to acknowledge the enormity and practical impossibility" of halting the decline of all threatened species, the report says.

Chronically threatened species are in more gradual decline, buffered by higher populations, but kiwi and kereru (pigeon) are both on that list.

An analysis of the top 800 species shows 77 per cent, or 616, are in decline but have no work targeted to protect them.

Rare mosses and little-known insects make up a big chunk of those, but also included is the aquatic diving bird the crested grebe, once found on 100 South Island lakes but now restricted to 32.

Rescue efforts for 12 per cent (96) of the top threatened species are successful only for some local populations as others become extinct. An example is the whio, or blue duck.

DoC senior technical officer Pam Cromarty said the department talked in terms of winning battles rather than the conservation war.

"We're stopping [species] from becoming extinct but [as to] actually improving populations on an overall level, we can't say. We think they're still in decline."

Work that was unsuccessful or incomplete on 3 per cent (24) of the highly threatened species included the destruction of half the Canterbury population of a rare plant through fire, protection of a Northland land snail delayed after iwi said they weren't consulted fully, and trap lines failing to stop a stoat onslaught which wiped out a population of rare kiwi chicks at Haast.

The conservation lobby group Forest and Bird said the figures made grim reading.

"The department has been bold enough to acknowledge that the overwhelming majority of threatened species are either going backwards completely or just going backwards."

The figures are from 2002-2003.

Acutely or chronically threatened

* Black stilt.

* Takahe.

* North Island brown kiwi.

* Kereru.

* Hooker's sealion.

* Katipo spider.

Difficulties and disasters

* Protection for rare snail on hold after iwi objected to not being consulted adequately.

* Canterbury fires destroy half the population of a rare plant.

* Trap lines fail to stop rare kiwi chicks being wiped out by stoats.