Editorial: Redressing human impact

Trevor Mallard

Today's announcement of a major conservation push for the region is undoubtedly an early Christmas present for our native species.

More than $6 million will be invested in the next five years through the "cutting edge" Te Matau a Maui project. Included in the initiative is co-ordinated pest control and work on conservation areas through to actively farmed land. (See story on page 5).

Sadly the list of New Zealand species known to have become extinct since human settlement includes one bat, at least 51 birds, three frogs, three lizards, one freshwater fish, four plant species, and a number of invertebrates.

A massive local push to redress this is as heartening as a rat in a DoC trap.

The project will begin early next year, focusing on 26,000 hectares of cape to city land between Waimarama and Havelock North, jointly funded by the Aotearoa Foundation, DoC, Hawke's Bay Regional Council, Landcare Research and Cape Sanctuary.

As we were reminded by Dr Ian Malcolm in the film Jurassic Park, there's a difference between today's endangered species, and animal groups like the dinosaurs which "had their shot, and nature selected them for extinction". The extant fauna this initiative seeks to save are endangered solely because of us.

While Trevor Mallard's theories on resurrection biology (bringing back the moa) are a little fanciful, there's surely something marketable in this endeavour.

Perhaps the Bay can boast it's leading the country in terms of treasuring, conserving and stemming the loss of our native species. Not a bad billing for the region.