Tag Archives: Environment

Could data commons be the the tool kit
for the ambitious goal of making New Zealand
Predator Free by 2050?

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Strategic philanthropy (including NEXT), social bonds, ethical funds management and social enterprise trends
are featured in this report by Chapman Tripp released this week.

Impact investment – trends and insights is a report written
by friend of NEXT Phillippa Wilkie.

NEXT Foundation is one of the investors
in the Te Manahuna Aoraki conservation
project – which will eliminate pests and
predators from the Upper McKenzie Basin
and Aoraki Mount Cook National Park.

NEXT is excited to announce a new environmental investment – we are founding partners in a collaboration restoring the biodiversity in the Upper McKenzie basin and Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park, announced today.

NEXT environmental initiative Project Janszoon – which
is restoring the biodiversity in the Abel Tasman National
Park- came in for special attention this week when A list
royals Prince Harry and his new wife Meghan visited the
Park.

Are rats using storm water drains to get around Wellington? That report and more updates in the latest edition of a Predator Free Wellington’s newsletter.

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Waiheke Island has secured funding
to help eradicate rats and stoats from
the island – and a chance to become
the world’s first predator free urban island.

Radio New Zealand filed this report.

Weather and possums – two
of the many challenges Zero
Invasive Predators is facing
removing predators from the mainland –
in a trial at the Perth Valley on the West Coast.

Wellington city is on a mission to become the first
Predator Free City in the world – and no rat is safe-
not even in student flats! A group called Traplordz
has been formed to tackle the rats in students flats-
as this report in Stuff explains.

One hundred Kauri seedlings – from the
iconic Colin McCahon House, have a new home
on NEXT environmental initiative Rotoroa Island.
The seedlings have been planted on the island to
try and save them from the deadly disease Kauri dieback.

“Of all the proposals we’ve seen Wellington is the strongest in terms of community at work,” NEXT advisor and Predator Free 2050 Limited spokesman Rob Fenwick commenting on the $3.2m boost for Predator Free Wellington announced this week.

Predator Free Wellington’s vision to be
the first capital city in the world to be
Predator Free got a boost this week –
to the tune of $3.2million.
Predator Free NZ 2050 Ltd announced
the financial support to the initiative
founded two years ago by NEXT, the
Wellington City Council and the Greater
Wellington Regional Council.

A group of school children from Omaha
School west of New Plymouth are playing
detectives to help the Taranaki Mounga project. They are
trawling through hours of video footage to help
locate where the predators are – so the
Taranaki Mounga team know where
to target their trapping efforts.

NEXT has released a video
showcasing the environmental
initiatives it invests is – as part of its
investment focus on a Predator
Free New Zealand, and healthy rivers.

Watch video

Predator Free NZ 2050 Ltd has announced
funding for Predator Free Hawkes Bay – kick starting with
$1.6million to remove possums from the Mahia Peninsula.

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Philanthropy, arts, science and technology – Kea has published it’s full list
of winners of the 2018 World Class NZ awards – where NEXT founders
Neal and Annette Plowman took out the Supreme Award.

NEXT Founders Neal and Annette Plowman – who are helping fund
the restoration of Abel Tasman National Park – were recognised as
Supreme Winners at the Kea 2018 World Class NZ Awards.

Neal and Annette Plowman are one of New Zealand’s most generous
couples. We chart their philanthropic journey over the past 15 years.

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Wilderness magazine reports on the latest
innovations from NEXT supported Zero Invasive
Predators, and how they are applying new
tools and techniques to eradicating
predators from a test site in Perth
Valley, Westland.

NEXT supported Cacophony Project
reports on some interesting data around the effectiveness of various
backyard traps, and how many predators they are
seeing around a trap for every one caught.

The Cacophony Project is the “Let’s rip
up the script/ use Kiwi No 8 fencing wire ingenuity
to solve a wick problem” approach to New
Zealand becoming Predator Free – according
to this report in Stuff NZ.

PwC NEXT Young Leader
Jacob Weaver
has completed his one year
secondment. He shares his thoughts on
how the experience will shape his career.

A large-scale predator project, the biggest of its kind in New Zealand, was launched in Taranaki today supported by more than $11 million from the Government.
Taranaki aims to be the first predator-free region in the country under the project, called Taranaki Taku Tūranga – Our Place, Towards a Predator-Free Taranaki and is led by the Taranaki Regional Council.

NEXT supported initiative Zero
Invasive Predators is collaborating
with PFNZ 2050 Ltd to undertake a big
challenge on the mainland. The team is about
to start a project removing possums from
the Perth Valley – forever.

Zero Invasive Predators Chief Executive, Al Bramley, shares his insights on the Power of Two – the collaboration
between the Department of Conservation and NEXT
to form ZIP.

Al details the journey of ZIP as it
develops tools and techniques to remove predators
from the mainland – and shares his belief that the PFNZ 2050 will
happen – but it will take the power of many.

Predator Free Community Champion Kelvin Hastie
– who NEXT supported for three years, discusses
the return of native birds in Wellington with Jesse
Mulligan on RNZ.

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The Government has flagged extra
funding for Predator Control in next week’s
budget.

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Taranaki Mounga is coming back to life!
Another 50 toutouwai – the endangered
North Island Robin, have been released
as part of the restoration initiative NEXT supports.

Wellington is aiming to be the first Predator Free
Capital City in the world – and as Newsroom reports,
there are serious signs in the suburbs that backyard
trappers are making a difference.

The Abel Tasman National Park has been given the tick of approval as a home for pāteke, with the population of rare native ducks increasing dramatically.

Read Media Release

Have you heard what’s going on in Wellington?
It’s a sound that is music to the ears of NEXT
Predator Free Community Champion Kelvin Hastie-
the Crofton Downs resident who was a catalyst for a
burgeoning backyard trapping network – and the
inspiration for Predator Free Wellington.

NEXT Foundation is celebrating four years since its launch in 2014 – and now supports sixteen environmental and education initiatives.

Thirteen of those investments have been made since the foundation’s inception – and three are continuing support for projects started before NEXT’s launch.

Department of Conservation rangers and their conservation dogs
Tai and Marti have been conducting their own census – counting
endangered whio ducklings at the NEXT supported environmental
initiative Taranaki Mounga.

Wellington has ramped up its efforts
to become the first Predator Free capital city
in the world – giving it extra priority in the
draft 10 year plan released this week.

A new predator control project is in the pipeline which
could be significant in New Zealand’s ambitous goal to
be Predator Free by 2050. NEXT supported Zero Invasive
Predators is planning an intensive operation near Whataroa – where
the Perth River could act as a natural barrier to keep predators
out – forever.

Tai has been successfully sniffing out whio in Taranaki. He is one of the first Conservation Dogs certified to locate whio in the region and has helped to locate a record number of 64 whio chicks on eight rivers this season.

“The Tomorrow Accord has emerged as a
blueprint for private/public conservation that
is … probably here to stay”. Wilderness
magazine reports on the groundbreaking
agreement between the Government and
NEXT Foundation to ensure environmental
gains are guaranteed by future governments.

The NZ Government has granted the iconic
Taranaki mountain a “legal personality.” The Chairman of
the NEXT supported Taranaki Mounga project; and Chief negotiator
for the Taranaki iwi Jamie Tuuta has described it as “significant to
Maori people nationwide.

Project Janszoon – a NEXT environmental
initiative is celebrating its fifth anniversary.
The project is a collaboration between the
Department of Conservation; The Abel Tasman Birdsong Trust
iwi and community to restore the Abel Tasman National
Park.

Taranaki Mounga, a NEXT supported
environmental initiative restoring
the National Park; has published its
2017 annual report.

Click here to read the report

Project Janszoon; a NEXT supported environmental initiative
restoring Abel Tasman National Park, has
published its 2017 annual report.

Click here to read the report.

For our final newsletter of 2017 we bring you the wisdom of the wonderful
leaders in education and the environment that NEXT supports. We asked them for a short quote or anecdotal story that resonates with them.

Taranaki Mounga is gradually
being brought back to life – He Kawa Ora.
The NEXT supported project is large scale and ambitious –
but all parts of the community are collaborating
to slowly turn the vision
into reality.

The NEXT supported environmental
initiative The Cacophony Project has
made significant gains in developing
heat cameras to help detect predators –
an effective tool in the ambitous
goal towards Predator Free NZ 2050.

Conservationists are celebrating
at NEXT supported environmental
initiative Taranaki Mounga after
three Toutouwai/North Island robin
breeding pairs were discovered with chicks.
It is the first time the species has
bred on the Mounga for 112 years.

NEXT supported environmental
initiative ZIP has had some great
success in a predator eradication
trial in South Westland.
The aim was to rid the area completely
of rats and possums using a modified
method of aerial predator control.

“If any country can pull off an eradication blitzkrieg
New Zealand can..” International recognition for
New Zealand’s ambitious Predator free 2050 goal
in an article in bioGraphic, part of the California
Academy of Science.

NEXT environmental initiative Rotoroa
Island has been praised by visiting filmmaker
and conservationist Philippe Cousteau as being
at “the vanguard of conservation”.
Cousteau – grandson of environmental icon
Jacques Cousteau – was visiting the island
to film a programme for Xploration Station.

In this newsletter – The Cacophony Project reveals developments with a high resolution heat camera to better detect predators. It’s part of its mission to bring information technology into predator management.

Naturalist and environmental advocate Ruud Kleinpaste talks to NewstalkZB about how collaboration is the key for a Predator Free NZ. NEXT Predator Free Community Champion Kelvin Hastie and the Wellington City Predator Free Project come in for special mention.