12 September 1999
MEDIA RELEASE - FOR IMMEDIATE USE
New Zealand Prime Minister asked to save the kiwi
Contact: Bill Gilbertson (04) 385-7374 or (03)548-4469 or Kevin Smith (04) 385-7374 or (04) 934-2473
A Government funded rescue programme is urgently needed to save New Zealand's national bird, the kiwi, from extinction
in the wild, according to the country's largest conservation group, the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society.
The Society's Deputy President, Bill Gilbertson, said Forest and Bird's national executive had met on the weekend to
discuss the chilling new information on the kiwi's conservation status.
New Zealand's Department of Conservation has reported that numbers of the North Island brown kiwi had fallen an alarming
18% in the last year in its Northland stronghold. The annual rate of decline since 1995 has been 10%.
"Within the next ten years kiwi will be all but extinct in Northland. This is a national tragedy. The kiwi is also in a
free-fall towards extinction elsewhere in the North and South Islands, with only populations of little spotted and
Stewart Island kiwi holding their own on small islands off-shore from the main North and South Islands."
Forest and Bird also believes the Haast kiwi, found in the South West World Heritage Area, is on the very brink of
extinction.
Mr Gilbertson said Forest and Bird had requested a meeting with the Prime Minister earlier in the year to seek her
support for the Society's proposals for a major rescue programme for the kiwi, costing $10 million a year.
"Jenny Shipley refused to meet with us and rejected our "Kiwis for Kiwis" programme. Soon after, she approved the
logging of critical kiwi habitat in Orikaka forest on the South Island's West Coast by the Government's native forest
logging business Timberlands West Coast."
Mr Gilbertson said the Government's refusal to fund a rescue programme for kiwi and to allow the logging of kiwi forests
was shameful.
"There would be no hope at all for the kiwi if it wasn't for a generous sponsorship by the Bank of New Zealand of the
Kiwi Recovery Programme, in partnership with Forest and Bird and the Department of Conservation. Thanks to this
programme we know introduced predators and habitat loss are pushing the kiwi to extinction and we know how the kiwi can
be saved. But government funding is desperately needed now to launch a major fight back to save the kiwi on the two main
islands."
Mr Gilbertson said New Zealand children would grow up with 25 channel television but will never know the call of the
kiwi in the forest at night.
Mr Gilbertson said the Society's executive had resolved to try once again to meet the Prime Minister and win her support
for kiwi conservation.
"We will also be seeking commitments to save our national bird from all political parties for the coming general
election."
"We are going to fight for the kiwi. We will not sit on the sidelines while it quietly disappears from our forests,"
said Mr Gilbertson.
...........ends