‘It was a bombshell': Govt culls pest eradication company
'This is the most ambitious conservation project attempted anywhere in the world,' Prime Minister John Key said in July 2016. 'But we believe if we all work together as a country we can achieve it.'
Key announced the 'world-first' project for New Zealand to become predator free – free of rats, stoats and possums – by 2050.
Conservation researcher Marie Doole, who back then worked as a senior policy analyst at Environmental Defence Society, says it was a rushed undertaking. 'John Key went and announced it, and then it was like, right, how do we do this?'
By November 2016, Predator Free 2050 Ltd had been formed to funnel money into landscape-scale projects, and technological advances. Its initial budget was $28 million over four years.
Conservation Minister Maggie Barry said at the time: 'This company and its leadership will be absolutely integral to the success of the Predator Free 2050 programme.'
Fast-forward to Thursday's Budget, and the National-led coalition Government dropped the bombshell Predator Free 2050 Ltd was being disestablished, swept away in a cost-cutting drive.
The timing of the cut was curious, as it's in the middle of the Government's strategy review of Predator Free 2050, submissions for which close on June 30.
It was also announced on the international day for biological diversity.
Predator Free 2050 Ltd chief executive Rob Forlong confirms he and 13 staff, and its four directors, were told the same day as the Budget.
'It was a bombshell for us and for the company itself' Jessi Morgan, Predator Free New Zealand Trust
Conservation Minister Tama Potaka says closing the company will save $12.6m in operating costs over four years.
'The predator-free projects and contracts funded by the company are not affected,' Potaka says. 'We are committed to the predator-free 2050 goal.'
Management of the programme will shift to the Department of Conservation, reducing duplication and increasing efficiency, the minister says.
Doole, who now runs her own research firm, Mātaki Environmental, says the head-whirling nature of the announcement reminded her of 2016. 'It'd just be nice if these things weren't just dropped out of thin air.'
Confusingly, there's a charity called Predator Free New Zealand Trust, which supports communities, iwi, families and individuals with advice and encouragement.
Trust chief executive Jessi Morgan – daughter of entrepreneur Gareth – says it works closely with the soon-to-be-closing company. 'They're almost like a sister organisation.'
Morgan found out about the company's closure on Thursday afternoon, when the Budget announcements were made public. 'It was a bombshell for us and for the company itself, and we really feel for all the people that are involved and affected by it, because it's pretty brutal to lose a job like that.'
The Government has reassured the trust it isn't stepping back from the mission. Potaka says all projects contracted to 'PF2050 Ltd' will continue. Morgan says: 'That gives us a bit of hope but losing the company itself is a bit gutting.'
How has the news landed with conservation groups? It hasn't sparked an outcry.
Perhaps the sector is getting used to bad news, given job cuts at DoC and savings demands on the department paired with public fundraising campaigns.
(The Budget revealed the department is set to reap tens of millions of dollars because of an increase in the international visitor levy, but, despite that, it's closing the Nature Heritage Fund, saving $5.2m, and reducing policy work to save $1.8m. The budget for community conservation funds will drop from $21.5m to $11.6m.)
Duncan Toogood, group manager of enabling services at Forest & Bird, accepts there's an argument of administrative duplication between the company and DoC, and it wants a smooth transition.
WWF-New Zealand chief executive Kayla Kingdon-Bebb says of the company's closure: 'It's an acknowledgement that the model of delivery through a Crown-owned corporation was not fit for purpose.'
Folding the work into DoC isn't necessarily a bad thing, but she wonders if there are deeper cuts on the way to the wider predator-free programme. 'That's not clear to me from the Budget papers.'
'It really has captured the hearts and minds of New Zealanders, perhaps more than any other conservation initiative' Kayla Kingdon-Bebb, WWF-NZ
Gary Taylor, chair and chief executive of Environmental Defence Society, was sceptical of the programme being led by a company, rather than a charitable trust. But pest management is critical, he says.
'It's got to be done well, it's got to be done at scale – and preferably at an expanding scale. And whether this new configuration will enable that or not is very much an open question.'
Doole, the independent researcher, believes Predator Free 2050 Ltd's closure will ripple through conservation, with potential unintended consequences. 'There's not really been any opportunity to talk about how it might roll out – it's come as a bit of a shock.'
Managing large projects will, she suggests, require a lot of effort from DoC – an organisation that's already struggling to fulfill its broad mandate, with a huge backlog of maintenance and upgrades, and chronically overworked staff.
It's questionable, Doole says, whether DoC can deliver the predator-free 2050 programme more efficiently than the company. 'It's a pretty messy scenario.'
Possums, introduced from Australia in the 19th century, consume an estimated 21,000 tonnes of vegetation per night. Photo: Department of Conservation
Sia Aston, the department's deputy director-general of public affairs, says about $70m a year is being spent on predator free, in total, but time-limited funding under Jobs for Nature ($76m) and the Provincial Growth Fund ($19.5m) has run out.
DoC's funding for predator free was unchanged in the Budget, she says.
The costs of managing Predator Free 2050 Ltd's projects and contracts will be absorbed into DoC's baseline. Once the company's wound up, $2.3m will be transferred to the department 'to avoid disruption to the valued work underway', Aston says.
'As the Government's lead agency for PF2050, the additional work of funding predator-free groups, providing technical support, collaborating, and investing in innovative technologies fits within DoC's role and skillset.'
Has Predator Free 2050, the company, achieved what it was set up to do?
Forlong, the chief executive, says it has supported and funded some very successful projects. 'These include landscape-scale, predator-elimination projects, the creation of new tools for predator removal, and scientific research.'
A 2016 Cabinet paper, outlining the 2050 ambition, said the Government agreed to four interim goals to be achieved by this year. Progress, noted in brackets, comes from the company's 2024 annual report. The goals were to:
increase by 1 million hectares the area of mainland New Zealand where predators are suppressed (84 percent achieved);
demonstrate predator eradication can be achieved in mainland areas of at least 20,000ha, without using fences (more than tripled to 71,000ha);
eradicate all mammalian predators from island nature reserves (progress not mentioned);
develop break-through science solutions capable of eradicating at least one small mammal predator from the mainland (not mentioned, but 15 new tools are helping to rid farmland of pests).
'We have come a long way, in a relatively short time,' Forlong says. 'All up, landscape-scale predator-elimination projects supported by PF2050 Ltd cover just over 800,000 hectares,' Forlong says.
By the end of March, the company had contributed $92m to its 18 major projects, while communities had contributed more than $167m – but not always in cash, that figure includes in-kind contributions and volunteer hours.
It's backing 18 major projects, three of them iwi-led, with 130,000ha in the 'defence phase'. 'The defence phase is when the project considers it has removed all resident animals of the target species and is defending the area against re-invasion.'
In all, Predator Free 2050 Ltd has funded and supported the development of 20 new and improved predator elimination tools.
What's Forlong's message to the Government, about carrying on their work? 'We are pleased that the discussion document for the new PF2050 strategy includes a focus area of 'defending the gains'.'
Kingdon-Bebb, of WWF, says there's been an explosion of community-based trapping groups and nature restoration initiatives since 2016, thanks to the 2050 goal.
'It really has captured the hearts and minds of New Zealanders, perhaps more than any other conservation initiative.'
She picks out Capital Kiwi Project, and Predator Free Wellington's elimination of rats, stoats and weasels from Miramar Peninsula, as notable successes which have wildly expanded bird life. (Another major recipient was Pest Free Banks Peninsula, which has cleared possums from almost 10,000ha in and around Akaroa.)
'It would be really disappointing to see the National Party back away from this initiative, which they themselves launched, purely with a view to cost-cutting. Say what you will about the company, one way or the other, the movement itself is making ground.'
Morgan, Predator Free New Zealand Trust's boss, says she's a fan of a laser-focused organisation focused on pest control. The risk of DoC absorbing the work is it won't get the attention required. 'I don't completely understand the logic behind [closing the company] but hopefully there was some.'
Doole, the independent researcher, says Predator Free 2050 Ltd will close as biodiversity is in deep trouble. 'We've got so much that's on the brink, and what we really needed was a concerted and strategic effort to boost nature protection.'
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