More than 50 nature-based jobs are being created in Auckland as part of the region's Covid-19 recovery.
A pest control trap. (File pic) Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
They are part of the Jobs for Nature programme which was allocated more than $1 billion to fund 11,000 jobs over four years as part of the Covid-19 recovery package with different government agencies managing funding.
Kiri Allan Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
Conservation Minister Kiri Allan was in Auckland to launch the region's projects.
"Tāmaki Makaurau has taken quite a hit over the past two years, with the region experiencing longer lockdown restrictions than anywhere else in the country," Allan said.
"Jobs for Nature provides both a platform to address Covid-19-related job losses and an opportunity to build an environmental legacy."
Allan said the Auckland jobs covered three projects that focused on pest control, revegetation and cleaning up waterways.
"These latest projects will add 'boots on the ground' to ambitious and much-needed conservation efforts across the region and help grow a sustainable nature-focused workforce."
The Department of Conservation will create jobs over three years to undertake pest eradication work and native regeneration across the region's 15 maunga.
Another project in Aotea Great Barrier will create jobs for pest eradication work over three years. Ngāti Rehua Ngātiwai ki Aotea Trust's Tū Mai Taonga will receive $2.1 million to create a local conservation workforce.
And the Sustainable Business Network will receive $1m to restore the Puhinui Stream and Manukau Harbour. The two-year project will create jobs for local people.
In the scheme's first year and a half, more than 5700 people were employed across more than 360 approved projects.
"Tāmaki Makaurau is our biggest city. Living elsewhere it can be tempting to think of it as being just another sprawling metropolis with too many shopping malls and tall buildings," Allan said.
"These projects prove it is far more than that - it is home to some unique habitats and ecosystems, which with some connected up nurturing, will result in some big conservation gains for us all."