Bringing birdsong back to our Great Walks

New Zealand's native species are on their knees and fighting to stay alive. We have over 4,000 native species that are classified as 'at risk' and 900 of these are threatened with extinction. A further 3,000 species are currently sitting in a 'data deficient' pile, of which many more are also likely to be at risk.

A key focus area of our partnership with DOC is investing in a range of biodiversity projects across our Great Walks network – an iconic part of New Zealand's tourism offering. Our objective with DOC is to bring birdsong back to our Great Walks by enabling sustained predator control and species monitoring on an ongoing basis.

The partnership currently covers more than 41,000 hectares of sustained predator control across five of New Zealand's Great walks, along with species monitoring, tracking, and environmental maintenance. Some of the species the biodiversity projects help to support include kiwi, takahē, whio, pāteke, kea, rock wren, and mohua, although many other native species benefit indirectly.