Rakiura / Stewart Island | NZ Nature Fund

NZ Nature Fund is managing funds donated to the major project of making Rakiura Stewart Island Pest Free on behalf of Predator Free Rakiura and the Island Ocean Connection Challenge.

Rakiura, ‘the land of glowing skies’, is Aotearoa New Zealand’s third-largest island. Rakiura lies about 30 km (19 miles) south of the mainland, in icy ocean waters under the glimmering Southern Lights.

More than 85% of the island is preserved in a national park that is renowned for its large swathes of native forest and abundance of unique native species. Tokoeka / brown kiwi outnumber humans on the island and are active day and night, often being found stumbling across walking tracks or through the small town of Oban. Hoiho / yellow-eyed penguins, the world’s rarest penguins, waddle along the windswept beaches.

Rakiura is also a potential future safe haven for a diverse range of distinctive wildlife. For example, the island was once the last bastion for the famous kākāpō, the world’s only flightless parrot. In 1977, scientists thought fewer than 20 kākāpō remained and were delighted to discover a surviving population on Rakiura. This discovery brought new hope of saving the species from the brink of extinction.

Rakiura is no longer safe for species like kākāpō that evolved in isolation and in the absence of mammals for 80 million years. Today, introduced rats, feral cats, hedgehogs and possums cover the island. These predators eat bird eggs and chicks, as well as the fruits, leaves and seeds the birds rely on, leading to a steepening decline of native species populations. Introduced browsers such as deer and possums have degraded vast forests, and scientists are now warning of a potential collapse of the whole forest ecosystem.

But there is hope. Māori conservationists and scientists are working hard to rewild the habitat on the island. The Predator Free Rakiura project, alongside the community of 400 residents, aims to completely remove the harmful predators that threaten native wildlife here.

The last remaining kākāpō were evacuated from Rakiura decades ago for their survival. After over 40 years of breeding, around 250 kākāpō now live on nearby islands that are free from destructive introduced predators. As the kākāpō population recovers, finding suitable new habitats is the team’s most pressing challenge. They see a return to Rakiura as one of the best solutions to secure the species’ future.

Predator Free Rakiura is a community-driven conservation project to help restore our islands’ natural gifts, for now and for the future.

With generous donations, the project can scale up their impact to the whole island, beginning the process to rewild Rakiura as a future safehaven for kākāpō.

The Predator Free Rakiura project envisions a future where ecosystems and the community thrive and benefit from each other. Since 2014, Ngāi Tahu, the Department of Conservation and other government agencies, businesses, organisations, and community representatives have been working together to realise this vision. They are working to rewild the island by removing rats, possums, feral cats and hedgehogs from Rakiura and its surrounding islands, as these predators eat or compete with wildlife and damage the forest. With support from generous donors, the project is now planning the first stage of operational work, which involves trialling tools and techniques to understand what is required to scale eradication across the island – beginning the process to rewild Rakiura as a safe haven for threatened birds like kākāpō.

TANE DAVIS Predator Free Rakiura Engagement and Advisory Group Member

“Rakiura is an island that has a history of inter-relationships that give people – both Iwi (Māori tribe), and Pākēhā (European New Zealanders) – a sense of heritage and identity. Ngāi Tahu being the Iwi (local tribe), and Tangata Whenua, (local people), culturally, spiritually, hold a Whakapapa (genealogical ancestry) connection to the island of Rakiura. Ngāi Tahu implement their rangatiratanga (sovereignty) to Rakiura, by expressing their commitment as Kaitiaki (guardians) of Rakiura. By way of genetically enhancing the taiao (environment), we can restore the island’s mauri (spiritual life force) as far back as possible to its original natural state.”