Nature fund ‘must continue’
The Government is being urged to continue investing in conservation projects amid fears the gains achieved by the Jobs for Nature fund will be undone.
The $1.19 billion Jobs for Nature programme, which began in 2020 as part of the Government’s Covid-19 response, was the largest nationwide investment in the environment.
The programme has employed 12,508 people working more than 8 million hours across 501 conservation projects since 2020, according to its recently released annual review.
Projects include an almost $1 million project to remove lead from buildings in areas where kea were dying from lead poisoning.
The programme has seen more than 8.5 million plants put in the ground, 630,000 hectares of weed control, 2 million hectares (ha) of wilding conifers controlled and 2.2 million hectares of animal pest control.
While the Government has committed no more funding, a small number of approved projects will continue until June 2026.
Former Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage said “funding falling off a cliff” would see achievements go backwards.
“There have been huge achievements across the motu. It’s just been enormous. What has been achieved will be unravelled particularly in wilding conifer control. We’ve got to keep going,” she said.
The scheme empowered iwi and community organisations, created jobs and upskilled workers as well as providing $2.14 in economic, environmental, social well-being and resilience benefits for every $1 spent.
She urged the new Government to continue the investment.
“I don’t want to make this too political but we are seeing a war in nature with this Government’s policies winding back progress,” she said.
Kea Conservation Trust project co-ordinator Peter Fraser said the Jobs for Nature
fund had provided a long lasting legacy for kea populations by saving the birds from a “horrible death”.
Monitoring by the Department of Conservation since 2006 has shown that lead toxicity in kea is widespread throughout the species.
The trust employed registered builders to remove lead from more than 450 buildings in areas frequented by keas and from the top of the South Island to Milford Sound.
“Kea eat lead headed nails and flashings because they taste sweet, and it makes them really sick and often can kill them,” Fraser said.
“It’s an issue that started showing up about 10 years ago in Mt Cook. In Arthur’s Pass birds were getting killed by car strike on the state highway but we discovered that was happening because of the cognitive decline caused by lead poisoning,” he said.
The project was made possible by $950,000 from Jobs for Nature and discounted materials from Diamond Roofing, he said.
The teams were expected to complete more than 500 buildings before the funding came to an end on March 31.
Jobs for Nature programme director Ilana Miller said, in the annual report, the programme restored the environment for future generations and provided a lifeline for those affected by the economic fallout from the pandemic.
“This programme has touched every corner of Aotearoa New Zealand, with workers engaged in restoring ecosystems and conserving our indigenous biodiversity from our northernmost tip to the southernmost reaches,” she said.
The people involved had laid the foundation for a more resilient and sustainable New Zealand. “It is essential that we maintain this collective effort, building on the achievements of the past three years,” she said.
The Jobs for Nature Programme Transition Strategy published in June 2023 included ideas on how the benefits could last beyond the life of the funding.
It featured the creation of a website called Tūhono Taiao to enable stronger collaboration between conservation projects and share best practices, tools, data, knowledge, resources, expertise, and people.
An independent evaluation found the programme achieved important outcomes for individuals, iwi and communities including historically marginalised groups completing formal qualifications.
It also gathered anecdotal evidence about more birds, bats and native plants as a result of projects.
Sam Shaw was a glacier guide in Mt Cook when Covid closed international borders. After a year of hunting temporary jobs, he became involved in weed control work through the $12 million Te Manahuna Aoraki project which has targeted plant species like gorse, wild lupins and flowering cherry over 74,193 ha in the upper Mackenzie Basin and Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park.
It led to him setting up his own weed control company but he has since returned to glacier guiding as tourism rebounds and the Jobs for Nature funding comes to an end.
“We were making progress because of the funding and doing a good job restoring the land back to what it was but broome and gorse are in the ground for 50 years so unless you keep going back you are never going to fix or solve that problem,” he said.