Tiritiri Matangi Island
Tiritiri Matangi Island (221 ha) is 3.5 km from mainland North Island. The island has been used as a government lighthouse settlement and leased as a farm since 1864, but sheep and pigs had already been introduced to the island by 1854. Farming continued until 1970, by which time almost all the original coastal broadleaf forest had been removed except for several small patches of grazed, trampled forest in valleys. The only introduced predatory mammal was the Pacific rat.
In 1979 Auckland University staff proposed a public initiative for revegetation of Tiritiri Matangi Island as a habitat for native fauna. This programme was eventually transferred to the "Supporters of Tiritiri Matangi", an Incorporated Society which undertook to raise funds for the project and provide volunteers to undertake the work under supervision by Department of Conservation staff.
Natural reforestation was impeded by dense rank pasture and bracken, so sophisticated nursery facilities were built on the island and 240,000 native trees and shrubs were planted in the old pasture. Regeneration is now rapid under the forest remnants, there is a developing forest over much of the remainder of the island, and Pacific rats were removed by Department of Conservation staff in 1993 using funds raised by the Supporters. Species either rarely seen or lost from the adjacent mainland and now introduced to the island include saddleback, red-crowned parakeet, whitehead and North Island robin. The island also figures in the recovery plans for brown teal, stitchbird, takahe and little spotted kiwi (Anon. 1995).
The focus of this project is public participation, education and interpretation. The island now receives over 13,000 visitors each year, including casual visitors, nature tourists, school parties and university students undertaking postgraduate studies.
Tiritiri Matangi is one end of a spectrum of restoration projects with high levels of public input. A different approach is being pursued on Stephens Island, home to rare invertebrates, seven species of lizards, an estimated 50,000 tuatara, and 500,000 seabirds. Here a co-management arrangement is now being implemented between the Department of Conservation and local Maori people. Similarly, restoration of Mokoia Island in Lake Rotorua for lizards and rare forest birds, is a partnership between the Department and the Maori trust which administers the land.
These island restoration projects proceeded only after the total eradication of at least one (in some cases many) species of introduced organisms. They built on advances that began 20 years ago. These early advances were all the more remarkable given the climate in which they were made. Twenty years ago conservation responsibilities were scattered across three different government agencies, each with their own legislation and each with mandates split between protection and exploitation. Some agencies were responsible for species, others for the habitats in which the species lived. The Department of Conservation was established in 1987 with an undivided conservation mandate backed by legislation that covered all indigenous natural resources.
The establishment of clear conservation goals, mechanisms for setting national priorities, and integrated conservation management to achieve these goals were now possible. These goals were identified by the Department of Conservation though recovery plans and conservation management strategies. One particular opportunity became apparent as part of this process: why not use the results and expertise gained from eradicating pests from small islands to control problem introduced organisms in large tracts of mainland forest? Mainland forest ecosystems could then be managed as "virtual islands" (Saunders 1990).
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