1.4m hectares protected from wilding pine

More than a million hectares of wilding pine control work has taken place in the past two years.

Established in 2016, The National Wilding Confider Control Programme aims to prevent the spread of pests and progressively remove them from areas they have already invaded.

Biosecurity Minister Damien O'Connor said a $100 million funding injection into the programme announced in 2020 had had a huge impact.

Speaking at the Wilding Pine Conference in Blenheim on 15 September, O'Connor said there was a visible difference across the country from the work.

"1.4 million hectares of native and productive land have been protected from wilding conifers in the past two years.

"From the dune lakes of the Te Aupōuri Peninsula in Northland, to the high country of Molesworth, and to the sacred Motupōhue Bluff Hill at Invercargill, the scenes are striking. Native tussock, bush and grazing land are recovering, and the outlook for biodiversity is brighter."

The programme had now completed two phases of control across 33 percent of the nationally known infestation, and the first phase over another 37 percent, he said.

"That means the spread has been stopped or slowed in these areas, and efforts can shift to stopping reinfestation over the next few years - which is progressively less costly."

A 2018 Cost Benefit Analysis report showed that if the programme focussed control efforts on 1.8 million hectares of the most vulnerable landscapes, this could protect 7.25 million hectares from further infestation.

The programme was on track to exceed this target, O'Connor said.

"Analysis showed that left unchecked, wildings would cost the economy $5.3 billion. We made the right call to front-foot the issue, announcing $100m of Jobs For Nature funding for a collective effort at the last conference in 2020

"The final $35m of Jobs For Nature funding will be spent over the next two years to continue the highest priority control work."