Bring Back the Bounty – $10 Per Possum
Ban 1080 Party – Policy – 18/09/2017
The Ban 1080 Party is excited to announce its Bring Back the Bounty policy. “We are committed to ensuring our
environment is managed in a way that is sustainable, safe and non-toxic – safe for our wildlife and our communities”
said candidate for Coromandel, and Co-leader Clyde Graf. The Party was formed by Co-leader Bill Wallace in 2014, and has
continued to draw strong support since its inception.
Currently around 2000 tons of 1080 poison bait is aerially spread across New Zealand forests and dropped directly into
waterways, every year. “The Bring Back the Bounty initiative will result in healthy forests, targeted and humane wild
animal control, and happier, richer communities. It’s a win-win-win” says the party’s West Coast-Tasman candidate Peter
Salter.
The project will engage communities in wild animal management and pay out on results, not poison use. A reward of $10
per possum tail, and $25 per stoat/ferret/weasel tail will be paid. It is expected that two groups of expertise will
emerge from the program - Possum hunters, and stoat-ferret hunters.
Trappers will be able to use the possums as they wish, so in many cases, increase their income and at the same time
supply product for the lucrative possum industry. A premium will be paid for mustelids because there are fewer of them.
The National Government has earmarked $40 million for community pest control projects. This block of money is likely to
be directed into existing groups and organisations, and most likely into those using persistent poisons like 1080 and
brodifacoum - both of which are produced by the government-owned company Orillion (www.orillion.com). The Ban 1080 Party
would redirected this money toward funding the first year of the Bring Back the Bounty project, and to employ targeted
and more humane wild animal management.
Bounties have been effective in the past, with birds like Huia trapped to extinction, and Kea, reduced by tens of
thousands. In fact the programs were so effective they were only required to run for a few years. Bounties also work for
precious metals like gold. A bounty of $1500 per ounce has the flow-on effect of motivating men to move mountains to
obtain it.
Research shows that aerially spreading 1080 poison causes rat plagues, and instability within ecosystems. It’s been
proven over and over again. Research also shows that 1080 poison kills rats (the main diet of stoats and ferrets) in the
shortterm, but often fails to reduce stoat and ferret populations and causes them to switch prey to birds, and often to
kiwi. This is demonstrated in Mt Bruce https://youtu.be/yGTVaTATbOg and in the Tongariro Kiwi Sanctuary results https://youtu.be/1gR674m7a00 . On-going aerial 1080 poison drops have resulted in kiwi now being extinct in the Pureora Forest Park, where up until
25 years ago, and when the aerial drops began, kiwi enjoyed living in the perfectlysuited podocarp forest. The Bring
Back the Bounty program will result in rats being a bi-kill of possum and mustelid trapping. Another win-win.
Clutha-Southland candidate Brian Adams says that “as the targeted species become fewer, the bounties will be increased
accordingly. This will create a goldrush effect. For example, a stoat could become more valuable than gold – ounce for
ounce – and before long they will be rarer than kiwi in a poisoned drop zone.”
Rural communities all around New Zealand are opposed to the aerial 1080 poison drops, and those same communities are
often struggling for sources of income. Currently over 100 million dollars is spent by Government agencies annually on
possum control, much of it involving spreading persistent poisons like 1080 and brodifacoum. The Government project
Predator Free 2050 will result in our forests and waterways being saturated with poisons, and inevitably result in more
extinctions of our native species including omnivores like kiwi, kea, morepork and weka. Insectivorous birds are also at
risk.
The Bring Back the Bounty project will eliminate the on-going poisoning of our wildlife and waterways, and mean New
Zealand can once again, with integrity, call its wilderness areas clean, green, and 100% pure. A vote for the Ban 1080
Party is a vote for healthy forests and happy communities.
Authorised by Mary Molloy, 68 La Fontaine Rd, Hari Hari. Ends.