New Zealand has announced a $9.7 million funding boost over four years to help protect national parks and native ecosystems from the impacts of wild goats and deer.
Conservation Minister Tama Potaka said the funding, provided through the International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy (IVL), will support targeted wild goat and deer management across nationally significant conservation areas.
The investment will help reduce browsing pressure on native vegetation, support ecosystem recovery and protect conservation gains across some of New Zealand’s most important landscapes. The programme will also strengthen monitoring, surveillance and operational capacity to reduce the risk of wild animals returning to controlled areas.
Funding will support conservation work in Whanganui National Park and the Waitōtara Conservation Area in the North Island, as well as Kahurangi, Nelson Lakes, Westland Tai Poutini and Fiordland National Parks in the South Island.
The Department of Conservation (DOC) will continue wild goat control and monitoring in high-priority ecosystems, protect goat-free areas around the Heaphy Great Walk, eliminate identified goat populations in Nelson Lakes and intensify eradication efforts in Westland Tai Poutini. In Fiordland, the funding will support an ongoing deer management programme aimed at reducing biodiversity impacts.
The new investment builds on previous IVL funding and DOC’s wider wild goat and deer management programme, which covers more than 1.2 million hectares of public conservation land.
The initiative is expected to strengthen long-term biodiversity protection while helping restore native ecosystems and safeguard some of New Zealand’s most valuable conservation landscapes.
