RNZ has launched a new documentary film and podcast series this month, Fight For the Wild.
Dave Hansford is one of the creators of the series which takes viewers into the wild heart of Aotearoa and documents the desperate battle to protect it from introduced predators.
Predator Free 2050 is the “biggest and best thing” that has happened in New Zealand conservation, Hansford told Jesse Mulligan.
Tokoeka Kiwi researcher Tim Raemaekers, above Shy Lake, Fiordland National Park Photo: Fisheye Films / Peter Young
Hansford believes there is a good chance of the project being a success.
“The first question people ask me is can we succeed? And the short answer, the glib answer, if you like, is, I believe yes.
“Now, having spent three years looking at it the longer answer, and the more analytical one, is that there are probably three elements to that. So, for instance, would we have the technology that would allow us for instance to find that last rat in a million hectares of fjord and wilderness? Well, increasingly, I would say yes.”
There have been “seismic” advances in trapping tech, he says.
“Smart autonomous devices that can be left out in the back country for a year at a time making clever decisions.
“This is artificial intelligence we're talking about and I'm really heartened by the way Kiwi innovators got aboard and they've already, in my view, turned pest control completely on its head and dragged it into this century.”
Graeme Atkins in Raukumara Forest, East Cape Photo: Fisheye Films / Peter Young
As to whether New Zealand can afford to fund Predator Free 2050, relative to the economy the cost is small change, he says.
“In 2015 Auckland University estimated the cost of predator free at $9 billion. Well let's assume that's gone up to $10 billion, we'll round that off.
“The New Zealand economy is a $200 billion activity annually, we can afford this. We can get that money from down the back of the couch.”
The biggest challenge facing the predator free project is socio-political, he says.
“How do you maintain that social momentum, that energy, that appetite, that enthusiasm, that commitment across generations, because you know, people are going to pass and people are going to be born before this thing is done.”
Conservation in New Zealand has tended to be a “nice to have when the economy is just gliding along happily”, Hansford says.
“Predator Free absolutely must not be hostage to the next financial crisis or something like that. So if there's a question mark for me, that's where it comes in, trying to ensure that political cross-party commitment for another 29 years. I mean that's quite a big ask. We're not very good historically, at committing to such long terms.”
