Charity aims to increase population of kiwi in Bay of Islands

A new strategy launched on Friday hopes to establish a source population of kiwi on select islands to increase the regional population by about 1300 kiwi by 2021.

Kiwi are likely to be settled in the Bay of Islands in the next few years in a bid to supercharge conservation efforts for the bird.

With assistance from iwi, whanau and genetic researchers, a new strategy launched on Friday hopes to establish a source population of kiwi on select islands to increase the regional population by about 1300 kiwi by 2021.

Announced on Auckland's pest-free Motutapu Island, Kiwis for kiwi aims to turn the 2 per cent decline rate of the bird across the country into a 2 per cent increase by 2021.

There are around 8200 North Island brown kiwi living in Northland. About half of these are not managed under current conservation initiatives.

The new strategy hopes to build the total population to 9560 in the next five years, and reduce the number of unmanaged kiwi from 4100 to 1700.

The Kiwis for kiwi strategy said Northland leads the way for community-led kiwi conservation initiatives, with more than 60 across the region.

Another area identified to increase population growth was current kiwi home Tawharanui.

Nationally, an estimated 68,000 birds remain in a country once home to millions; researchers estimate that the population stood at about 100,000 when it first became apparent several decades ago that kiwi were on track to extinction.

The mission, drawing on an $11 million government grant, would rely on efforts by hundreds of volunteers and private landowners all over the country to trap and poison predators.

Some kiwi species remain more threatened than others, but emergency conservation efforts have helped pull the most endangered - including rowi and Haast tokoeka, now numbering in their hundreds - back from the brink of extinction.

The Kiwis for kiwi effort works in step with the Department of Conservation's own kiwi recovery plan, which has a goal to lift the total population back to 100,000 by 2030.

By then, DoC wants populations rebuilt to 35,400 brown kiwi, 35,000 tokoeka, 2900 little spotted kiwi, 19,900 great spotted kiwi and 900 rowi.

"It's like setting up an endowment fund for kiwi," said the charity's trust chairman, Sir Rob Fenwick.