Chris Carter: Commercial farming would soon kill off our native bird

COMMENT

Gerry Eckhoff's article on the idea of farming kiwi shows once again the problem with much of the Act Party's thinking: it looks tidy in textbooks but doesn't bear much relation to reality.

Contrary to Mr Eckhoff's claims, farming doesn't preserve species, it alters them.

The history of agriculture is marked by the extensive engineering of species through selective breeding. The demands of production, docility and profitability have led to quite dramatic physical changes in domesticated animals and plants.

No domesticated breeds resemble their wild ancestors. A chihuahua does not resemble a wolf, nor does a broiler chicken resemble a jungle fowl.

There is nothing to suggest a farmed kiwi would be any different. After a period of domestication, I doubt that we would recognise our national bird, so great would be the changes to it.

We certainly wouldn't have the nine distinct species and subspecies we have today. In which case, would we have preserved the kiwi? I don't think so.

Mr Eckhoff argues that free trade in endangered species might work a little like the art market, in which demand determines what is valued and conserved.

Let's not forget that capitalism is even more ruthless than Mother Nature. If left to vagaries of the market, a host of our country's species would swiftly disappear because they are extremely difficult to breed in captivity, let alone profitably.

Another group of species would also disappear because they aren't cute, cuddly and appealing to consumers.

There is a further important argument against allowing open trade in threatened native wildlife to develop - smuggling.

The simple reality is the biggest reservoir of kiwi in New Zealand remains in the wild, not in captivity. If people are able to make money by selling kiwi to the international public, the temptation for suppliers to start raiding our wild stocks would be overwhelming. It would certainly be cheaper than trying to breed them.

Because of the vast areas kiwi live in, it would be practically impossible and prohibitively expensive to police illegal capture. Wild populations of kiwi would quickly be plundered.

At that point, public ownership of the species would pass into the hands of those rich enough to buy them from private suppliers. That's not my idea of what New Zealand is about.

Kiwi are in trouble in our forests. The total number of individuals is continuing to decline but thanks to the good work of the Department of Conservation and a host of community groups, the BNZ and private individuals, the kiwi is not in danger of extinction. We are confident we can ensure the survival of key populations of all species and sub species in different areas of the country.

For this reason, there is no need to gamble with the future of the kiwi in the open marketplace.

But Mr Eckhoff rightly points out that the private sector does have skills and resources useful for the preservation of species.

The Department of Conservation seeks to carefully harness those. At present, 15 private kiwi hatching and rearing centres around New Zealand are paid for kiwi chicks.

Each centre is tightly regulated to control the possibility of disease and to preserve the genetic integrity of different kiwi species. They also have only one customer - DoC, and by extension the taxpayer.

It is capitalism of a sort, but corralled to work in favour of the kiwi, not against it.