Conservation grants for two West Coast groups

Associate Conservation Minister Nicky Wagner today announced Conservation Volunteers New Zealand and West Coast branch of Forest and Bird have been awarded Community Conservation Partnership Fund grants.

Conservation Volunteers, which is a not for profit charitable entity, has been awarded $195,000 for a coastal amenities engagement programme.  It aims to develop community engagement in projects in Buller and Grey Districts.

“The grant, which will be spread over two years, will allow an engagement officer to be employed to encourage and manage community participation in critical conservation tasks on project sites at Punakaiki, Westport, Greymouth, Hokitika and Cobden Aromahana Sanctuary,” Ms Wagner says.

West Coast branch of Forest and Bird receives $40,000 over three years to fund trapping for its Rainy Creek Ecological Restoration Programme, which seeks to improve ecosystem health and restore biodiversity in the Rainy Creek area near Reefton.

“Volunteers will re-establish predator control and over several years it’s expected the control area will be expanded to more than 1100 hectares. 

“This restoration programme is an example of an independent community project with strong community involvement and support that will contribute to protecting and enhancing our natural heritage,” Ms Wagner says.

Rainey Creek is where one of the most recent sightings (2007) of the previously thought to be extinct South Island kokako occurred.