As widely reported, National have, for a change, announced a laudable and ambitious goal:
New Zealand to be Predator Free by 2050
…
That’s why I am today announcing we have adopted the goal of a Predator Free New Zealand. By 2050 every single part of New Zealand will be completely free of rats, stoats and possums.This is the most ambitious conservation project attempted anywhere in the world, but we believe if we all work together as a country we can achieve it. …
Wonderful goal! And the resourcing?
So the Crown will initially invest $28 million over four years to establish a new joint venture company called Predator Free New Zealand Ltd to drive the programme, alongside the private sector.
Ah. $28 Million is about $1 per hectare. It’s a ludicrous figure, as the reaction from various folk on Twitter below makes clear. Furthermore, it depends on a miraculous breakthrough:
And we will have developed a breakthrough science solution capable of removing at least one small mammal predator from the mainland entirely.
No one can guarantee breakthough science solutions – especially while AgResearch is being gutted!
So this is just feel-good nonsense then. Soon to be added to Key’s long list of such announcements, like a cycleway the length of NZ, a secret plan to end Japanese whaling, the War on P, our emissions reduction (hah!) targets, plans to be a “financial hub”, the promise of pandas, and so on and so on.
Feel-good promises for 2050 are easy. Achieving them is hard. Which is a pity, because this was a really really good promise.
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