A community-led conservation project in the Waioeka Gorge is helping the whio, or blue duck, best known for being on New Zealand’s $10 note, from the brink of extinction.
Volunteers for Eastern Whio Link have helped fledge more than 120 ducklings, with over 1000 traps catching stoats and rats covering 30,000 hectares.
Sam Gibson, or Sam the Trapman, started the group in 2020, bringing together local hunters, fishers and farmers.
“I used to hunt and fish in these rivers as a kid and there were whio everywhere.. when I came back there weren’t any whio in the rivers,” he told 1News.
“I got together with a group of hunting mates and we thought, ‘Hey these eco-systems have been looking after us for years, maybe it’s worth us looking after our eco-systems back’.”
The project was funded by the Labour Government’s Jobs for Nature programme, which was a cash boost for the conservation sector post-Covid.
That funding was due to end in June and hadn’t been renewed by the coalition Government, which one volunteer labelled “short-term thinking”.
“A lot of the work that happens out here in communities is beyond what you can see at a desk in Wellington,” said co-chair Sam Rowland.
Eastern Whio Link was working to find a new way to fund the project to keep protecting and growing New Zealand’s flock.
