|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
- By Andrew Bayly, MP for Port Waikato
In 2016, my eldest son and I dragged sledges 120 km to the North Pole to raise money and awareness for the Kōkako Recovery Programme in the Hunua Ranges (I was MP for Hunua at the time).
We raised over $10,000 in donations, a substantial amount of which came from members of the National Party’s environmental wing BlueGreens and the people of the Hunua electorate.
The Kōkako Recovery Programme has become one of New Zealand’s most inspiring conservation success stories. Launched in 1994, the initiative began with the Hunua kōkako in dire straits: only one breeding pair remained, on the brink of local extinction due to habitat loss and predation by rats, stoats and possums.
Auckland Council, in collaboration with the Department of Conservation and local volunteers, implemented an intensive pest control programme in the Hunuas, including trapping, baiting, and habitat management across thousands of hectares of native forest.
The results have been remarkable. From just a single breeding pair and 23 individual birds in 1994, the population had grown to an estimated 259 breeding pairs at a 2022 census, and the project team are confident that these numbers will have grown even more when they do the next survey.
Volunteers remain the backbone of the project, contributing to ongoing pest control and monitoring efforts. Their dedication to eradicating predators has benefited other native species too, with growing numbers of kākā, tomtits, bellbirds, Hochstetter’s frogs, and long-tailed bats in the area.
In early August, I returned to the Hunuas to join the local volunteers, and we spent several hours trekking through the rugged bush to check bait stations and traps. I was thrilled to hear the kōkako’s distinctive call.
The volunteer team told me the money we raised allowed them to buy good-quality equipment for their work, and I was delighted to see that my ‘cheque’, which then-Minister for Conservation Maggie Barry and I presented to the project team in 2016, was still proudly on display in their workshop.
The Kōkako Recovery Project is a fantastic example of what local and national government can achieve together through sustained conservation and community involvement. Check out the council’s website for volunteering opportunities.
For electorate issues, contact me at andrew@baylymp.co.nz.
