Bird and Native Forest Sanctuary: Tiritiri Matangi Island

Tiritiri Matangi is an island off the coast of Auckland and it was the stage for one of the most ambitious replanting programmes we have ever laid eyes on.

The replanting programme began in 1984 and its success is thanks to the support and involvement of thousands of volunteers. The programme was completed in 1994 with over 250,000 trees being planted. The establishment of a tree nursery was central to the replanting project and Pohutukawa, New Zeland's Christmas Tree, has been the main tree planted initially. This fast-growing tree forms a canopy for other slower-growing species such as taraire, kohekohe or puriri, shading out the thick grass and providing shelter from the exposed conditions. The droppings of seed-eating birds help to spread seed and contribute to the regrowth of the forest.

New Zealand's island sanctuaries help to ensure the survival of many rare and endangered plant and animal species. They are especially valuable because they are easier to keep free of predators tham mainland areas.

Many island sanctuaries such as Little Barrier only allow the public restricted access to ensure that there is minimum disturbance of wildlife.

Visiting Tiritiri Matangi is easy. You take the ferry from downtown Aukland and book the guided tour, which is essential if you want to understand the history of the project and know the birds that reside on this reforested island.

For the first time since we arrived in New Zealand we understood what an extremely delicate business nature conservation is in this country. We had to stop comparing the fauna and flora situation in Europe with what is going on here. New Zealand never had any big land mammals and its native birds never had a natural enemy but all that changed with the introduction of predators. Rats, stoats, possums, cats and dogs are making it extremely difficult to restore the population of native birds and this was never the case in Europe. We were very unpleasantly surprised when we cycled for two weeks and hardly saw wildlife. The same species of birds kept showing up while in Europe all kinds of species live just around the corner. It all becomes clear when visiting Tiritiri Matangi. It took almost 30 years to restore this island and reintroduce native species, and it only takes one inconsiderate visitor to release a few rats to put all this work in jeapordy. We now understood how hard the conservation task must be on the mainland, where predators are difficult to control and farming is the main pollution factor. It can be changed and the situation can be improved but it seems even harder in New Zealand for the reasons mentioned above.

Personal note on nature conservation: I can't stop thinking about how to make nature conservation a big bucks business. Maybe it is because I have worked for big companies but it seems obvious that the corporate world and thus politicians would only jump ship if interesting investment opportunities are involved. Sure, we know by now that natural resources are extremely valuable and worth a lot of money but nature conservation should be profitable in its project form, not as a resource. There has to be a way of making money out of preserving our natural heritage. I hope I am mistaken but it seems to me that nature conservation costs money and is mostly carried out by volunteers. There will never be enough political will and corporate involvement if there is no hard cash to be gained. I would like to see this blog to become a think tank on the subject.

In the meantime, I hope this article encourages to go and see Tiritiri because it is one of those magical places that you should not miss, and where you can spot rare birds like the hihi, saddleback, takahe, kokako, rifleman but alse the rare tuatara, a reptile endemic to New Zealand. When in New Zealand people refer to bringing back the birdsongs to their forest, this is exactly what they mean. New Zealand's forests have been devoid of the songs of their native birds and they are desperately trying to bring them back. Now, how can we make big bucks out of those efforts so that the cold and merciless corporate world sees the benefits of protecting our fauna and flora??