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Conservation

Land & freshwater

Because of New Zealand's isolation for millions of years its biota is one of the most distinctive and unusual in the world.
The impacts of people in the very short time since human arrival have been devastating.
The damage seemed irreparable and the path to more and more extinctions inevitable.
But by refusing to accept that the seemingly impossible was unachievable, by setting goals, by prioritising, by imaginative use of new technology and by drawing on support from the community, including that of the Maori people, we can, and have begun to turn things around in ways which would not have been thought possible a few years ago.
We have massive challenges ahead. But it is we as people who have caused the problems and it is for us as a community in New Zealand to accept responsibility for finding the solutions. On our recent experience we think there are grounds for hope.