Native birds ‘‘in trouble’’
With several native Northland birds at risk of extinction, an environmental advocate is calling for conservation to be made a regional priority.
Forest and Bird Northland advocate Dean Baigent-Mercer says improving the condition of collapsing native forests is key to improving the state of birdlife in the area.
‘‘A regional priority needs to be turning around the state of the collapsing native forests across the north, expanding pest control along coastlines, including dog control on beaches, and resuscitating wetlands,’’ BaigentMercer says.
‘‘These three activities are key to the return of Northland’s most threatened native birds. This is all entirely possible within our lifetimes but we must take action quickly.’’
The calls come after the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment released a report outlining that four out of every five native birds are ‘‘in trouble’’.
In the report
only a fifth of NZ’s 168 native bird species are ‘‘doing OK’’ and a third are in ‘‘serious trouble’’.
Baigent-Mercer says the birds most at risk in Northland are the North Island kokako, NZ dotterel, Australasian bittern, fernbird, weka, kaka,
Pycroft’s Petrel.
The Australasian bittern are the closest of all of Northland’s native birds to extinction, he says.
‘‘With less than 900 nationally, bittern are now classed as critically endangered. The continued destruction of wetlands for farming and mining for swamp kauri keep constricting where these birds can live, pushing them closer to extinction.’’
Forest and Bird chief executive Kevin Hague says the PCE’s recommendations for native birds include increased and improved predator control, better land and sea habitat protection and more funding for DoC.
‘‘If the Government is serious about saving our native birds from extinction, they must properly fund the Department of Conservation and take a genuine whole of government approach, where all government agencies prioritise the conservation of our unique native species,’’ Hague says.
The PCE recommended that the Tourism, Finance and Conservation Ministers direct officials to investigate new sources of conservation levies including requiring visitors to pay a nature border levy. rifleman and