DoC to end unsustainable Toyota Kiwi Guardians travel programme this month

DoC has announced that the Toyota Kiwi Guardians programme, which seeks to involve kids in outdoor adventures, will come to an end this month. Photo / Getty

The Department of Conservation, in consultation with Toyota New Zealand, has announced that the Toyota Kiwi Guardians (TKG) programme will come to an end this month.

The activity programme invited children and families to participate in various outdoor activities. Kids could work to earn free adventure medals by curating animal-friendly habitats in a garden, stopping the spread of weeds, cleaning up waterways, creating nature journals and visiting labelled Kiwi Guardian sites (made up of various DoC walks and parks around the country), among other outdoorsy actions.

Participants were able to apply for a medal online, with a short description of how they fulfilled their chosen activity.

The decision to end the programme was announced by DoC on Friday. August 1 has been given as the final date for kids to register for their environmentally conscious medals.

Since the announcement was made, an online petition has been made which asks DoC to reconsider the decision and look at other ways of carrying out the programme.

Mike Tully, Acting Director General, explained,

“After careful examination, it became clear the way the programme and its associated medal reward system was structured was not sustainable in the future and did not align with our strategic priorities.”

Tully acknowledged that many New Zealanders had shown a great passion for nature with the programme and that there had been a lot of interest in its conclusion. Tully highlighted that DoC was looking to move focus to other issues in their domain.

“It’s important for DoC to target its efforts towards addressing the big conservation challenges New Zealand is facing and concentrate on DoC’s priority biodiversity work.”

Since the programme began running in 2016, over 100,000 kids have received medals in the mail after participating in the listed activities.

Kids will be able to complete the various activities associated with the TKG programme and redeem for the medals until July 31. If the stocks of medals do not last, then an electronic certificate will be supplied.