Apr 09, 2025 Protecting New Zealand Biodiversity
Polynesian explorers were the first humans to reach the islands now known as New Zealand (or Aotearoa) approximately 700 years ago. Pollen and charcoal records show that over 80% of the country was once covered in dense forests before human arrival. However, today, forest cover has decreased to about 25% of the total land area. Additionally, New Zealand’s wetlands have significantly diminished, with only 10% of the original wetlands remaining at the turn of the century.
The early Polynesian settlers arrived with the kiore or Pacific rat. Later, European settlers introduced a variety of other animals, including two additional rat species. In total, eleven mammal species have become naturalized in the region. These include three rodents, three mustelids (ferrets, stoats, and weasels), pigs, hedgehogs, possums, dogs, and cats.
Since the arrival of humans in New Zealand, several species have gone extinct, including one bat species, around fifty bird species, three frogs, three lizards, one freshwater fish, and various invertebrates. Many of the remaining bird species are currently experiencing population declines. The decline in seabird populations has had significant ecological consequences, as seabirds play a crucial role in transferring large amounts of nutrients from the sea to land. A wealth of fossil records and the bones of hunted animals have contributed to a clearer understanding of the changes in New Zealand biodiversity over time.
Philip Armstrong and Annie Potts provide a detailed account of how New Zealand transformed following human arrival, particularly in terms of changing attitudes towards the island’s wild areas over the past several hundred years. For instance, agriculture now dominates the New Zealand landscape, and humans have introduced 28,000 plant species—approximately two-thirds of the original plant species—as well as 34 terrestrial mammals, 20 freshwater fish, 3 frogs, 1 reptile, and an estimated 22,000 invertebrate species.
Conservation concerns began to emerge in the late 19th century, leading to the establishment of several national parks and pest-free island sanctuaries in the 1890s. The Native Bird Protection Society was formed in 1923, although laws protecting introduced species remained in effect until the second half of the 20th century. Nonetheless, support for conservation was steadily increasing. The Nature Conservation Council was established in 1962, and public awareness of conservation issues continued to grow.
In 1987, the New Zealand government created the Department of Conservation to coordinate national conservation efforts. Then, in 2016, the government launched the Predator Free New Zealand 2050 initiative, aimed at eliminating predators across the country. A significant turning point in the rise of conservationism was the discovery of live takahe̅, the world’s largest living member of the rail family. This large, flightless bird was once thought to be extinct but was rediscovered in remote areas of the South Island. Armstrong and Potts note that the rediscovery of the takahe̅ provided “a significant foundational myth for New Zealand conservationism, just when it needed one.”
Current efforts to protect and preserve New Zealand’s wilderness from disruptive human influence are exemplified by the brushtail possum. This species was originally introduced to New Zealand from Australia to establish a profitable possum fur industry. Government agencies and Acclimatisation Societies played a significant role in growing and protecting the possum population. For example, according to early statements by the Auckland Acclimatisation Society, “we shall be doing a great service to the country in stocking these large areas with this valuable and harmless animal.”
Released possums thrived in New Zealand due to the absence of their natural predators until 1922, when, under pressure from farming interests, the Department of Internal Affairs declined further requests to release more possums. The possum’s reputation gradually shifted, and in 1956, they were classified as “noxious animals.” As a result, national efforts were initiated to eradicate possums entirely.
Today, New Zealand utilizes about 80% of the world’s supply of 1080 poison for this purpose. However, the ongoing use of this chemical has sparked a contentious national debate. Government agencies and farming interests argue that the benefits of using 1080 poison outweigh the risks, while animal advocates and certain hunting groups oppose its use.
New Zealand has emerged as a global leader in eradicating invasive species from islands and in evaluating the humaneness of wildlife control methods. However, as Linklater and Steer note, applying the successful strategies used on relatively small islands to manage rodent and possum populations across the entire country introduces significantly greater technological and social challenges.
American environmental historian William Cronon argues in “The Trouble with Wilderness” that environmental politics are poorly served by focusing on the notion of wilderness as the purest, most authentic, and most valuable form of Nature. As Cronon states,
“the trouble with wilderness is that it quietly expresses and reproduces the very values its devotees seek to reject. The flight from history that is very nearly the core of wilderness represents the false hope of an escape from responsibility, the illusion that we can somehow wipe clean the slate of our past and return to the tabula rasa that supposedly existed before we began to leave our marks on the world. The dream of an unworked natural landscape is very much the fantasy of people who have never themselves had to work the land to make a living—urban folk for whom food comes from a supermarket or a restaurant instead of a field, and for whom the wooden houses in which they live and work apparently have no meaningful connection to the forests in which trees grow and die. Only people whose relation to the land was already alienated could hold up wilderness as a model for human life in nature, for the romantic ideology of wilderness leaves precisely nowhere for human beings actually to make their living from the land.”
Predator-Free NZ 2050 is an ambitious, “moon-shot” project that has seen several successes in its first five years. However, there are troubling aspects regarding its conception and implementation. For example, government initiatives encouraging children to participate in the trapping and killing of wild creatures that have now been classified as harmful trespassers in Aotearoa run counter to standard humane education approaches. For example, the United Nations has called upon countries around the world to protect children from exposure to violence against animals due to potential harmful effects on child development. Despite this, New Zealand is recruiting children to trap and kill wild animals as part of a national conservation project.