Thread: Tell 'em they're dreaming . . . Govt announces new policy, predator free by 2050

Originally Posted by Dougie

True gimp, but what's wrong with setting reasonable goals? Recently the govt said they would reduce reoffending by 25% by 2017...and that's where it ended. What's the actual plan here? Has their even been sufficient research done to know exactly how many pests we are dealing with and in what areas?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

They have stated goals for 2020 and 2025 which seem relatively reasonable

2020 goals
• Develop a collaborative predator control strategy.
• Another 175,000 hectares in addition to the current
1 million hectares on conservation land and 7 million
hectares led by OSPRI are under some form of control.
• Five projects supported by PFNZ are making progress,
and sharing lessons.
• PFNZ and DOC will tackle larger scale operations.
• Collaborative results will show social and economic benefits.
• PFNZ will foster community participation in local
predator control activities.
2025 goals
• Increase by 1 million hectares the areas of New Zealand
where predators are suppressed.
• Demonstrate predator removal in areas of mainland New
Zealand of 20,000 hectares.
• Remove all mammalian predators from New Zealand’s
offshore island nature reserves.
• Develop science solutions that remove at least one small
mammal predator from the New Zealand mainland.

There is all kinds of monitoring of pest numbers that goes on. The question "how many" is the wrong question, and I wish they'd stop using absolute numbers like "25,000,000" because they're not measurable or accurate, but they're easier for people to take in than concepts like "relative abundance", because, as demonstrated by this forum's response to this, reading comprehension isn't a common skill

A little consideration and an open mind instead of a knee-jerk-burst-into-tears reaction at the idea of someone investing a relatively small amount of money in terms of government spending into trying to preserve our natural heritage might be a good idea