The Jobs for Nature programme is on track to exceed expectations, the Conservation Minister says.
Photo: 123RF
The programme was allocated more than $1 billion in last year's Budget, aimed to fund 11,000 nature-based jobs across four years as part of the Covid-19 recovery package with different government agencies managing funding.
The roles include pest control, revegetation, cleaning up waterways, and improvements to public tracks and huts.
Conservation Minister Kiri Allan said more than 5700 people have already been employed across more than 360 approved projects in the scheme's first year and a-half.
"The work that people are chucking their boots on in the morning to go out and do is to restore the mana and the mauri of our waterways, our mountains and places that are integrally important to us as all New Zealanders, to protect those species that we're at a critical junction of losing."
By mid-December the fund had paid for 3.2 million plants to be planted, animal pest control on 560,613 hectares of land, wilding conifer control on 839,162 hectares of land, and maintenance on 594 kilometres of tracks.
It has been transformative for communities and the environment, Allan said.
"The [goals] were incredibly ambitious when they were set and I am so incredibly pleased to see that yes, we're absolutely on track to not just meet but exceed the expectations that we set down when the programme was anticipated at its birth.
"Being able to pick up displaced people from critical industries like tourism. Yes, we've met that milestone. In terms of being able to get the jobs starts that we were hoping to see. Yes, we've been able to see that milestone come to fruition.
"In terms of the types of projects, in terms of the lifting up biodiversity values across the country, we've been able to meet and achieve that milestone."
Conservation minister Kiri Allan at on one of the planting projects boosted by the Jobs for Nature funding, at the Waiwhakaiho River in Taranaki. Photo: LDR / Quentin Bidwell