A new report offers a critical health check of community groups at the frontlines of the country’s battle to stem the worsening loss of its native biodiversity.
Support for New Zealand’s grassroots conservation groups is “drying up”, a major new report finds – threatening to undo gains made to save our threatened species from extinction.
The report, being launched this week, offers a critical health check of community groups at the front lines of the country’s battle to stem the worsening loss of its native biodiversity.
Be it setting traps and baiting stations or planting trees and maintaining wetlands, these groups play an invaluable role in national conservation efforts, while pouring in millions of free hours of labour each year.
Yet the new report, commissioned by the Predator Free New Zealand Trust, found the more than 300 groups it surveyed were often having to dig into their own pockets to stay afloat.
The bulk of the groups, which included those led by iwi and landowners, were focused on fighting pest animals estimated to annually kill some 25 million native birds.
While most reported getting a stable amount of funding, that was only a limited amount: one quarter received less than $5000 over the past year.
The same proportion of respondents weren’t sure how much longer they could carry on at their current funding levels – and another quarter figured they could only carry on another year.
The report’s lead author, Dr Marie Doole of consultancy Mataki Environmental, described their funding environment as “hostile”.
With the end of the $1.2 billion Jobs for Nature programme, and many other sources of cash tightening up, “many groups are finding funding very challenging, putting gains to date at risk”, Doole said.
Even so, there’d been an uptick in efforts over the last few years, showing the sector was trying to do more, and in more places, but with less money.
Still, some big successes had come on the back of volunteers, such as saving a kōkako population in Auckland’s Hūnua Ranges, helping clear possums from Picton and enabling the return of giant wētā to the Bay of Islands after a 200-year absence.
Doole said her research found that some kinds of funding, such as for staff and overheads, was especially hard to get.
“Funding for staff is also often short-term, making it hard to get the right people and keep them in their jobs.”
But the problems extended beyond finances: the report found the conservation sector wasn’t being co-ordinated well enough – with agencies and groups needing to work together more often, and more strategically.
Better data was needed to show financial backers that progress was being made – and some respondents complained of not getting enough official recognition.
“There’s plenty of tales of groups feeling like their efforts aren’t respected by agencies.”
Doole acknowledged that agencies themselves were being squeezed – and that they’d need a boost themselves if grassroots conservation was to be properly supported.
One recent financial review found the Department of Conservation (DoC) faced a funding gap of more than $70 million over the next four years – and green groups were quick to point out the lack of money for the agency in the last Budget.
Predator Free New Zealand Trust (PFNZT) chief executive Jessi Morgan said community groups “filled the gaps” left by DoC and councils – but said community conservation wasn’t sustainable in its current state.
“The systems set up to support community conservation don’t work properly.”
The issues flagged in the report also weren’t new to Forest and Bird’s Jenny Hanwell.
Even the Pest Free Hibiscus Coast project she managed – which has engaged more than 2000 north Auckland residents and built strong partnerships over a decade, with proven results – faced challenges in getting appropriate, consistent funding.
Relying on short-term grants could hamper community conservation efforts, Hanwell said, given their need to develop relationships and build momentum.
“Where this momentum is disrupted, gains can quickly be lost,” she said.
“For example, predator populations can increase very quickly, which is disheartening for volunteers and hugely detrimental to the biodiversity the group has worked so hard to protect.”
DoC’s strategic partnerships and investment director David Van Der Zouwe said the department supported volunteer groups through local co-ordination, technical advice and some funding.
That included more than $9m awarded to efforts around the country last year – most of which went to projects to protect threatened species and safeguard rare ecosystems.
Van Der Zouwe said the report would be useful for improving how DoC funded these groups, at a time it was reviewing its criteria.
“DoC is also working to develop clear biodiversity priorities to focus our effort on work that makes the biggest difference for nature,” he said.
“If we can adopt shared priorities - across central and local government, iwi and communities – we can drive co-ordinated effort and investment into critical work on high value ecosystems, habitats and native species.”
The office of Conservation Minister Tama Potaka declined to comment when approached by the Herald.
Jamie Morton is a specialist in science and environmental reporting. He joined the Herald in 2011 and writes about everything from conservation and climate change to natural hazards and new technology.