Forest and Bird remind us that…
It has been 6 months since the announcement that New Zealand would be predator free by 2050 garnered worldwide attention.
The clock is ticking, how are we doing?
Back home, the focus has turned to how can we accomplish such a task? Will there be secure funding for the next 30 years? And who will develop a much-needed national predator-free strategy?
The Government plans to form a joint-venture company called Predator Free New Zealand (PFNZ) Ltd that it will use to spearhead pest eradication efforts. It will work with communities, attract co-investors, invest in scientific research, and accelerate the scale of pest control.
PFNZ will be a Crown entity, and one of its jobs will be to attract $2 of private sector and local government funding for every $1 of government funding. This would turn the Governments $28 million “seed money” into $84 million – or $21 million per year for the next four years.
“I’m a little bit sceptical about that,” says Kevin Hackwell. “There is a lot of hype that the private sector and businesses are going to flood into biodiversity and fund predator control. It would be lovely to think they could, but New Zealand is a small place. I can’t see the private sector putting tens of millions of dollars into conservation.
“The worry is that everything is predicated on getting this money but if it doesn’t materialise, will the government come through with the extra money?” …
Sounds like nothing concrete has happened yet. Come on National – it was your promise – let’s see the action!
Powered by WPtouch Mobile Suite for WordPress