National sanctuary workshops
Sanctuariesnz.org workshop attendees, Cape Kidnappers August 2009. Image - Neil Fitzgerald
There are many kinds of restoration projects underway in New Zealand and many possible definitions of a ‘sanctuary’. In this article, sanctuaries are considered to be places in which the control or eradication of a broad range of mammal pests is pursued to restore ecosystems to indigenous species dominance and full species occupancy. These terms mean simply that key ecological processes (e.g. herbivory, seed dispersal and decomposition) are achieved mainly by native rather than exotic taxa, and that all the native species that could possibly be present at a site (i.e. that are not extinct), are actually present. Routinely, increasing indigenous dominance and species occupancy are achieved by pest control and translocations respectively.
Using this definition, there are 63 sanctuaries on or near the New Zealand mainland, totalling about 56,000 ha, with most established in the last decade (Fig.). In the absence of a national sanctuaries agency of some kind, Landcare Research has, since 2004, hosted both a website – sanctuariesnz.org – and an annual workshop for sanctuary practitioners. A research agency is a logical choice for this role because there is substantial uncertainty about many aspects of how sanctuaries should be managed, and research can help to improve this situation.
Any interested person is welcome at the workshops. On average, each is attended by about 100 people, of whom half are sanctuary practitioners, a quarter are researchers or students, and the rest are from the Department of Conservation (DOC), territorial authorities, funding agencies and consultancies of various kinds. The first day of each workshop features talks on subjects relevant to sanctuaries, while the second day includes both workshops and a field trip or two to nearby sanctuaries. In the last two years, topics covered on the first day have included fungi, ship rat–mouse relationships, translocation procedures, sanctuary governance, environmental education, land snails, robin translocations, detecting mice, DOC mainland islands, and reviews of the outcomes and challenges faced by managers of particular sanctuary sites.
John Innes reports that the key outcome of past workshops is the recognition that most sanctuaries share the same problems and challenges. This finding has helped clarify key national research priorities, including the ongoing improvement of pest detection and control (especially when pest densities are very low); mammal pest behaviour at the ends of peninsula fences and at breaches in ring fences; and how best to measure ecosystem responses to the two major regimes of pest control – near-eradication of all pests, and the sustained removal of key pests. The workshops have also helped build relationships between sanctuary practitioners to the point where coordinated experiments between some sanctuaries could be possible. Finally, practitioners are concerned about the financial sustainability of all sanctuaries, and believe that this deserves fuller evaluation.
The 2012 workshop will be in South Taranaki in August. It will focus on the pest-fenced 230-ha Rotokare sanctuary near Eltham and all interested practitioners are welcome.
This work is funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation (Programme CO9X0503).
