Annual Report For the year to 28 February 2014 Forest & Bird highlights 2013 was a landmark year as Forest & Bird members has a unique blend of national and local focus, doing celebrated the 90th birthday with events around the on-the-ground conservation work and speaking up for country, focusing on local milestones and the work nature in our cities and rural communities, and engaging done by long-standing volunteers. It was an opportunity wha¯nau from children to grandparents. Our diversity is to reflect on an extraordinary range of achievements our strength. during the nine decades since Captain Val Sanderson We are looking to the future, identifying the most critical and a former prime minister, Sir Thomas Mackenzie, threats to nature of invasive pests, climate change and launched the Society at a public meeting in Wellington unsustainable development, and working on meaningful in 1923. solutions in which all New Zealanders can play a On the national stage, our successes during the part. Our vision is for a predator-free New Zealand, past 90 years have included several new national landscape-scale conservation and an ecologically Captain Val Sanderson parks and marine reserves, saving Lake Manapo¯uri, sustainable economy, engaging in partnerships with iwi protecting West Coast and central North Island native and others who share our values. forests from logging, the purchase of Maud Island in The Society’s guiding principles and structure are under the Marlborough Sounds and Mangere Island in the review and we are reshaping the organisation so it has Chathams as wildlife sanctuaries, the creation of the the strength to meet the societal, scientific, commercial Department of Conservation and the protection of many and technological demands of coming years. precious rivers. We are proud of Forest & Bird’s legacy of conservation Captain Sanderson’s daughter, Nancy Jordan, attended achievements for Aotearoa New Zealand, and we look the 90th birthday dinner in Wellington in June along forward to the challenges of the next 90 years. with his grandsons, Justin Jordan and Guido Panduri. They link us with Forest & Bird’s founder and his vision, just as today’s supporters have followed the earliest members who laid the foundations of an enduring Society. Since 1923, Forest & Bird has influenced hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders, acting on the pressing environmental issues of the day, changing the course of history and fostering new generations of conservationists. As we approach our centenary, Forest & Bird continues to play a key role as a kaitiaki for nature. Forest & Bird Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Inc. l ANNUAL REPORT 2014 Ruataniwha dam site Love DOC Day Auckland’s Pollen Island Forest & Bird’s conservation directions Forest & Bird’s work to protect our marine environment included 2009-2013. Forest & Bird members held cake stalls and took messages submissions on new regulations for deep sea activities such as seabed of support to DOC offices around New Zealand. Conservation SECURING NATURE BEYOND PROTECTED AREAS mining and oil drilling in New Zealand’s Exclusive Economic Zone. Minister Nick Smith subsequently announced an extra $20 million for The government failed to get support among its coalition partners Forest & Bird played a significant part in developing a Kaiko¯ura DOC, saving about 60 positions. for its plan to downgrade the environmental protections of the marine reserve. Forest & Bird supported a report by the Parliamentary Commissioner Resource Management Act (RMA), due in large part to lobbying by A Forest & Bird representative was appointed to the working group for the Environment that recommended reclassifying the third of the Forest & Bird and other environmental organisations. developing the Hauraki Gulf Marine Spatial Plan. conservation estate that is stewardship land – in limbo and waiting for its natural values to be reflected by a protective classification. In Hawke’s Bay, Forest & Bird branch members worked with staff Forest & Bird staff and members served on several collaborative to ensure water quality and wildlife would not be sacrificed for the forums – including the Kaimai Mamaku Catchment Project and Forest & Bird backed the successful campaign against plans to build proposed Ruataniwha irrigation scheme. They appeared before the the Waikato Healthy Rivers: Plan for Change – that are advancing a tunnel through Fiordland and Mt Aspiring national parks and a Board of Inquiry appointed to consider the project. conservation in many areas. The Land and Water Forum, of which monorail through Southland’s Snowdon Forest. In Canterbury, Forest & Bird’s years of work to protect the Upper Forest & Bird is an active member, continued to monitor and critique Work on expanding New Zealand’s marine reserves continued, Hurunui River from irrigation dams succeeded when independent the implementation of its recommendations by government and including the campaign to create a major Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary, commissioners released their decision in April. Forest & Bird was councils. in association with Pew and WWF-NZ. involved in the High Court proceedings that eventually confirmed the Conservation partnerships with several organisations, including As kauri dieback swept through Northland and Auckland forests, commissioners’ decision. In Otago, Forest & Bird lodged an appeal the Ka¯ka¯po¯ Recovery Programme and the Kiwi Recovery Group, Forest & Bird actively protected kauri in reserves and shared the on a plan change to Otago Regional Council’s Otago Water Plan, contributed to a better future for iconic native species. messages about stopping the spread of the disease. focusing on impacts on coastal areas. The Mackenzie Country continued to be a focus, with Forest & Bird SUPPORTING AND EXPANDING PROTECTED AREAS CONSERVATION IN URBAN AREAS playing an important role in the Mackenzie Sustainable Futures Trust, The major campaign to save the West Coast’s Denniston Plateau Forest & Bird’s Auckland region branches worked with staff to make which in May announced an agreement recommending protecting from an open-cast coal mine ended after three years as Forest & Bird a significant submission on the Proposed Auckland Unitary Plan, which part of the region and fostering a more balanced approach in the exhausted its legal options. The Environment Court decision to grant will become the most important resource management document for rest. Forest & Bird was also involved in legal action to protect the Bathurst Resources its consents could have been appealed on points the Auckland region. Mackenzie’s drylands from two major dairy developments. of law but a win would have delayed, not stopped, the mine. Forest Many other branches highlighted conservation issues in their cities Pressure is increasing on the South Island’s high country, and Forest & & Bird chose not to appeal after the company agreed to permanently and continued their restoration projects bringing nature back to Bird submitted on tenure review proposals and successfully submitted protect 745 hectares of the plateau. towns. on an irrigation proposal in the Craigieburn Basin and adjoining Lake A heavy flowering of beech trees in spring 2013 activated a crisis The mo¯ hua, or yellowhead, won Forest & Bird’s ninth Bird of the Year Pearson, which was declined by an independent commissioner. response from the Department of Conservation (DOC). Forest & Bird poll. Nearly 13,000 votes were cast in the online poll, which reaches a Forest & Bird was involved in other legal appeals for better publicly supported DOC’s Battle for our Birds campaign to increase young, mainly urban audience. Forest & Bird’s Kiwi Conservation Club environmental protection, including district plans for Ashburton, aerial 1080 operations in the South Island to combat the explosion of for children ran a second Kereru Count, attracting most of the 1073 Kawarau and New Plymouth. predator numbers that follows a mast year’s bumper crop of seeds. observations from city dwellers. A 15-hectare site on Kaipara Harbour was identified as a potential Forest & Bird’s Love DOC Day on April 11 celebrated the Forest & Bird supported for the seventh year the annual Garden Bird new nesting site for critically endangered fairy terns, and Forest & Bird department’s value to New Zealand and our concern at plans to Survey, a nationwide citizen science project monitoring long-term cleared the site of weeds, stoats and rabbits. axe 140 DOC positions on top of a $54 million funding cut from trends in garden bird populations. Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Inc. l ANNUAL REPORT 2014 Denniston Plateau Mussel farming Dunedin branch pest control CLIMATE CHANGE With only an estimated 55 Ma¯ui’s dolphins aged more than a year, Members of Forest & Bird’s Far North branch protested against Forest & Bird joined with other environmental groups to advocate Forest & Bird advocated for greater protection of the sub-species, mining exploration in Russell State Forest in Northland. against deep sea oil drilling, providing expert advice on the potential including an extension of the area where gill nets are banned, At Pelorus Bridge in Marlborough, members continued their pest impacts on wildlife of spills from deep sea oil blowouts. essentially along the west coast of the northern North Island, and control work to protect a colony of long-tailed bats, or pekapeka. a marine mammal sanctuary. Staff and many members publicly backed the need to move beyond And on D’Urville Island in the Marlborough Sounds staff discovered a large colony of long-tailed bats. fossil fuels and towards alternative energy sources, including wind, tidal, solar, biomass, geothermal and hydro. Forest & Bird’s organisational directions FINANCIALLY INDEPENDENT STRONG BRANCHES AND ACTIVE MEMBERS Forest & Bird joined an unsuccessful legal appeal arguing that the More than 67,700 people gave generously to support conservation, effects of climate change should be considered in granting resource The rejuvenation of Forest & Bird’s Waitaki branch in March 2013 ranging from one-off donations to regular giving.