Sobering Reading - do we care? Would be great to have your - TopicsExpress

Sobering Reading - do we care? Would be great to have your feedback :) The conservation estate The conservation estate includes natural land and water environments, iconic heritage sites and buildings. New Zealand’s biodiversity is unique. Around 90 per cent of our birds and insects, 80 per cent of our plants and all of our reptiles, frogs and bats are found nowhere else in the world. Despite a significant proportion of the country being public conservation land (about thirty per cent of New Zealand’s land area), New Zealand has one of the highest proportions of threatened species (37 per cent of bird species) and one of the highest extinction rates in the world (34 per cent of endemic land and freshwater bird species). The decline in biodiversity is a problem, as extinction has flow-on effects through the ecosystem, for example, many native birds are important seed dispersers and pollinators of native plants. Unlike most other parts of the world, New Zealand’s flora and fauna lack natural defences against attack from introduced predators and pests as they evolved in isolation for over 80 million years. Conservation in New Zealand is therefore heavily weighted towards the trapping and poisoning of these introduced pests. While biodiversity protection and recovery is being achieved in areas under intensive management, the overall trend outside of these areas is that biodiversity is declining and ecosystem services are being reduced. Less than 25 per cent of the conservation estate receives interventions on key threats, with around eight per cent receiving possum, rat and stoat control.