Maukahuka, Auckland Island, covers 46,000 hectares of rainforest, tussock land and coastal cliffs, and it is home to more than 500 native plants and animals, with over 100 found nowhere else on earth. Gibson’s wandering albatross nests almost exclusively on its small pristine, pest free neighbour, Adams Island. New Zealand sea lions raise their pups on its beaches. Megaherbs return when the cattle leave.
Friends of Maukahuka
The Final Island. Restoring New Zealand’s Subantarctic.
46,000 hectares.
One of the most ambitious ecological restorations in Aotearoa.
Maukahuka’s wildlife has survived ice ages, isolation, and storms.
It hasn’t survived feral pigs, mice and feral cats quite as well. For two centuries, those three predators have driven 32 native bird species off the island and held the rest of the wildlife in a holding pattern. The Maukahuka Auckland Island Restoration Project is the plan to remove them, all of them, in one of the largest island pest eradications ever attempted in the Southern Hemisphere.
This is a globally significant restoration opportunity.
Restoring Maukahuka is a Treaty partnership between DOC and Ngāi Tahu, with NZ Nature Fund supporting through fundraising. The science is complete, the pathway is clear, and the opportunity is now. Your can be a part of turning this ambitious restoration plan into a permanent conservation legacy.
Become a friend of Maukahuka
Join a community of people who care about protecting Maukahuka. Get exclusive updates from the field, deep dives into the ecology, and be the first to know about our progress.
For $1,000, you can sponsor a hectare of Maukahuka.
The most direct way to support the restoration is to protect a hectare of Maukahuka. Your donation supports a rugby-field-sized piece of the 46,000 hectares we’re working to restore. You can make a one-off donation or pay over twelve months at $85 per month.
Other ways to support
The most direct way to support the restoration is to protect a hectare of Maukahuka.
$50 covers monitoring equipment for a survey site.
$200 funds a full day of fieldwork on Maukahuka.
Whatever you give goes directly to the eradication effort.
We’re ready to initiate once funding is secured.
Eradication is a one-off investment with permanent returns.
Remove the predators once and the island recovers for decades, for centuries, for perpetuity. The Antipodes Islands were cleared of mice in 2016. Nine years on, Lincoln University entomologist John Marris has confirmed a previously unknown Carabid beetle species there.
A brand new beetle, turning up nine years after the mice left. That’s the kind of long-term return that a one-off eradication can deliver, particularly in remote areas where reinvasion risk is low. Maukahuka is next.
Years of preparation are already underway.
Species spotlight
Where the funding stands
The Maukahuka Auckland Island Restoration Project is an ambitious eight-year conservation effort. The project requires significant long-term investment from both public and philanthropic partners, with a fundraising target of NZD $80 million.
Every dollar to Maukahuka through the NZ Nature Fund supports the philanthropic share of the project cost. All NZNF donations are tax-deductible in New Zealand and the USA.
In the media
A flagship project of the New Zealand Nature Fund.
Founded in 2000 by former Conservation Minister Denis Marshall, we bridge the gap between what government can fund and what nature needs to survive. Every year, more species slip closer to extinction. We direct donor funds to projects that halt extinctions, restore ecosystems at scale, and protect what can’t be replaced.
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Protecting and restoring nature is needed more than ever. Thank you so much for your support of this critical work for our native habitats and wildlife.
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