The new boss of Predator Free 2050 says New Zealand is on track to reach the target and he is excited to be involved in the effort.
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Rob Furlong, who has held leadership roles at The Whangārei District Council and Environmental Protection Authority, will take over the job as chief executive from Brett Butland on 11 July.
The government-owned charitable company was set up in 2016 to make a significant contribution to the government's goal of removing possums, stoats and rats from Aotearoa.
Furlong said he always had a strong interest in the environment.
"My environmental roots go way back, I have a degree in zoology and I worked as a coastal and marine conservation officer in Otago between 1988 and 1992, so I'm excited to start in this roll."
He said Predator Free 2050 had already made great progress.
"It's going really well, we are on track to meet the interim targets for 2025, there's no doubt the 2050 target is going to be hard because as we go on it's only going to get harder to get rid of the last pests but there is so much support for this mission right across the country.
"I can't speak highly enough of all the iwi, environmental and conservation groups, farmers and landowners who are all working together to get rid of pests."
Furlong said as chief executive he wanted to focus on those doing the mahi.
"It's a tough target to reach so our job Predator Free 2050 is to support that goal in a number of ways - we fund projects where people are actually doing the mahi, we fund tools to help them do it better. And we will also do a little bit of funding of what we call breakthrough science, which might provide a silver bullet in pest control or make it easier in the future."
