Investing more in our region's biodiversity

Protecting and restoring biodiversity is an investment in our future.

We can’t live without biodiversity; our economy depends on it. But funds we established to support conservation projects in our rohe (region) haven’t kept pace with demand or the rate of inflation.

More New Zealanders are getting stuck into conservation-related projects and they’re looking increasingly for philanthropic and government investment.

This is reflected in the increased number of applications we’ve received to our three contestable funds, as part of our Natural Heritage Partnership Programme, which have now been in place for between 14 and 30 years.

Many worthwhile community-led conservation projects have been made possible through our funding. They include planting projects, predator control, community engagement, sustainability programmes and marae-based social enterprises. There’s been some bigger ecological restoration projects that have received funding from us too.

The number of groups, level of participation, and size and complexity of the projects has changed over time. The amounts being sought for projects have also been on the rise as applicants look to sustain their projects over multiple years.

Our per property natural heritage rate of $5.80 was first introduced in 2005 but has not kept pace, resulting in us not being able to support the growing number of community programmes or take into account increased costs of the work.

Read more in our consultation document, below