Critics of the plan to disestablish Predator Free 2050 Ltd are concerned about undoing progress on eradication. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
The environmental sector worries that the future of a predator-free Aotearoa is in jeopardy after the Government swung the axe in the latest budget.
It was billed as a 'moonshot' for New Zealand's environment - a bold, world-leading goal launched by Sir John Key in 2016, aimed at eradicating rats, possums and stoats from our islands by 2050.
The vision has been clear - bring back birdsong to every valley, protect the flightless kiwi, and restore what once thrived.
But today, the future of Predator Free 2050 looks uncertain.
Predator Free 2050 Ltd, the Crown-owned company established to drive and fund large-scale eradication and breakthrough science, is now being disestablished, as announced as part of Budget 2025.
Funding for the company will cease by the end of the year, with its responsibilities shifted to the Department of Conservation (DOC), which the government says will reduce duplication, increase efficiency and save about $12 million.
"People are now worried for this programme," Newsroom environment editor David Williams tells The Detail.
"They say without ongoing funding, we will not only not go forward, but we will go backwards. This programme needs funding, and that's up to the government."
The government insists the broader goal of predator eradication remains.
But Dr Kayla Kingdon-Bebb, chief executive of WWF New Zealand, is not entirely convinced.
"New Zealanders believe in the Predator Free 2050 dream, and we want the government to get behind them too. But I'm not sure this will happen.
"I've not been seeing a lot of enthusiasm for environmental outcomes from this government, full stop. We describe the government's policy agenda as a war on nature, and I think it is disappointing that a previous National government got so strongly behind this moonshot objective, and this government does not seem to care so much."
Both Williams and Kingdon-Bebb say the country has "overwhelmingly" backed the Predator Free 2050 initiative, allowing it to "come a long way, in a relatively short time".
Already, predator-elimination projects cover more than 800,000 hectares.
"This is a big amount of land," says Williams. "And the goal is big ... but they have done well.
"They also said they wanted to fund scientific research, and 15 or 20 projects have already had money to try and sort this problem out.
"A lot of community groups have latched on to this - someone said to me that this is the one conservation project that has captured the imagination of New Zealanders more than any other."
Kingdon-Bebb agrees.
"It has certainly captured the hearts and minds like nothing else," she says. "We have seen an explosion of community trapping groups and landscape-scale projects over the last nine years, which has been amazing ... now I feel the government is taking its foot off the pedal.
"What is apparent is that the government has had a look at the delivery model of the programme as a whole, which is complex.
"So, if it is the case that the government has reviewed it and determined that a crown-owned corporation is not the best delivery methodology, I can accept that.
"DOC has a lot of capability ... and perhaps it is appropriate for DOC to be coordinating this work, perhaps there was duplication of roles and functions and costs.
"But where I would be concerned is that in the wider scale of what has happened in the last two budgets, the Department of Conservation will see, in total, about 300 million dollars in savings exacted from it.
"So, it does beg the question whether a very stretched department can pick up the leadership of this initiative in a way we would want to see it done."
Critics say that move will slow momentum, bury innovation under bureaucracy and confuse local projects already stretched thin.
They also argue that across the country, hundreds of predator-free community groups, many driven by volunteers, will be left wondering what support will look like without the company's funding, research backing and strategic oversight.
But the government insists the predator-free projects and contracts funded by the company are not affected and it is committed to the predator-free 2050 goal.
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