Battle to save kiwi gets $744,000 grant boost

Conservation Minister Nick Smith with conservationist Emma Bean at Rainbow Springs, where he announced a new Community Conservation Partnership Fund grant for the organisation Kiwis for kiwi yesterday. Photo / Ben Fraser

The Government is to provide a $744,000 grant to support 80 community-led kiwi recovery programmes around New Zealand.

Conservation Minister Nick Smith announced the funding at Rainbow Springs in Rotorua yesterday.

"Kiwis once numbered in their millions but, with predators and the loss of habitat, now number 70,000.

"They will not exist for our grandchildren outside of sanctuaries if we do not step up our protection," Dr Smith said.

"The biggest problem is that 95 per cent of young kiwi do not survive to breeding age in unmanaged areas because of stoats, rats and possums.

"This grant is about the Government partnering with the community and the Bank of New Zealand to halt the historic decline in kiwi numbers."

Dr Smith said the conservation organisation Kiwis for kiwi had been running for 10 years but needed more support to help conservation projects. "This grant will, over the next three years, enable the national organisation to employ a mentor for advocacy and for working with iwi.

"It will also enable the employment of a Northland regional kiwi co-ordinator, where there is the most potential to maintain viable populations of kiwi in the wild," he said.

"This grant will help with work like kiwi avoidance training for dogs, training volunteers for kiwi call count monitoring, supporting trapping and predator control operations, and helping communities understand the vulnerability of their local kiwi populations," Dr Smith said.

The Community Conservation Partnership Fund, through which the grant was made, was announced in March and will provide $26 million over the next four years to community organisations undertaking natural heritage and recreation projects.

The fund will support hundreds of projects on public and private land.