‘Conservation is at the heart of our business’
A tourism company’s efforts to put conservation at the heart of their operations appears to be bearing fruit as native birds flock back to Rotorua’s Dansey Road Scenic Reserve.
Forest zipline company Canopy Tours has just finalised its bi-annual monitoring and trap resetting and found little evidence of dead predators across their 515 traps.
The intensive pest control programme has been running for five years and Canopy Tours conservation lead Scott Davis said it was inspiring to see native birds return.
‘‘It’s really exciting to see different species coming back and a greater number of all species in the reserve.
‘‘The tangible impact of five years of conservation blitzes is a win for all Kiwis,’’ Davis said.
Recent new arrivals to flock back to the reserve are more sightings of Ka¯ rearea (New Zealand Falcon), our nation’s only threatened bird of prey with only 3000-5000 breeding pairs left in existence, along with two species of cuckoo – Pı¯pı¯wharauroa (Green Shining Cuckoo) and the Koekoea¯ (Long Tail Cuckoo).
This predator control work was set up through a partnership with the Department of Conservation, where Canopy Tours and DOC operated under an agreement that a percentage of the rent Canopy Tours paid for leasing the land goes back into conservation work in the forest.
The two matched each other dollar for dollar.
The partnership agreement expired in April and Canopy Tours is doing their research and planning the projects before they apply for another three-year agreement.
A percentage of profit from the Canopy Tours business still goes back into the Trust’s work in restoring the native reserve.
Canopy Tours general manager Paul Button said the company was proud of the conservation efforts in the 250-ha reserve.
‘‘Conservation is at the heart of our business.
‘‘Our team culture is centred around it, and this extends to the visitor experience at Canopy Tours. Visitors are increasingly invested in the conservation work, and love being able to contribute at an individual level, interacting with our native birds and experiencing a regenerating forest,’’ he said.
‘‘Every native bird, skink, tree, and insect we see thriving in our forest is more reason to keep on providing protection for them.’’