Aotearoa’s environment is yet again the loser in the Government’s 2025 Budget, with major nature funds scrapped and $200 million in handouts to fossil fuel companies, says the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) New Zealand.

WWF-New Zealand’s CEO, Dr Kayla Kingdon-Bebb, has slammed the Government’s short-sighted thinking and failure to grapple with the fact New Zealand’s economy relies so heavily on a healthy natural environment.

“When Nicola Willis called this a ‘no BS Budget’ was she actually referring to ‘no Biodiversity Spend’? Because this Budget is woefully lacking when it comes to investment in our environment - despite the fact that nature is New Zealand’s greatest asset,” she says.

“It is utterly astounding that in the midst of a climate and biodiversity emergency this Government is ploughing over $200 million into underwriting new gas fields, scrapping funds that protect our declining native species and ecosystems, and significantly defunding the Predator Free 2050 initiative - a ‘moonshot’ initiative that the National Party spearheaded with great fanfare in 2016.

“New Zealand already has the highest species extinction rate in the world and we’re just watching it happen like a slow-motion car crash.”

WWF-New Zealand’s recent economic assessment with EY New Zealand revealed that investing in the protection and restoration of nature could save Aotearoa New Zealand more than $270 billion over the next 50 years.

Investing in creating more Marine Protected Areas to provide safe havens for ocean wildlife, restoring degraded wetlands, and expanding native forest cover all bring huge benefits to our economy.

“Investing in nature isn’t simply a ‘nice to have’. Protecting our country from the worst impacts of biodiversity loss and climate change is absolutely essential for preserving our global ‘clean and green’ brand and ensuring our tourism sector and primary industries continue to thrive,” says Dr Kingdon-Bebb.

“Yet again, the Government has totally missed the memo. When nature is at a tipping point, we need to be investing in climate action and boosting funds to agencies like the Department of Conservation - not stripping them further to the bone.

“It’s no wonder that DOC is having to crowdsource funding from members of the public for its core conservation work, while report after report shows our native species are continuing to decline at alarming rates.

“It just makes no economic sense that we’re continually neglecting our greatest asset and wilfully making decisions that are going to cost us more in the long-run. This Government is claiming it has a ‘responsible budget’ - but frankly pursuing short-term economic growth at the expense of our natural world is the furthest thing from responsible I can imagine.

“Without concerted action and investment in conservation and climate action, the natural environment on which we all depend is going to end up as barren as this Budget.”

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