Nichols, M., Menzies, A., Arand, J. and Bell, P. - December 2024
In March 2021, the Predator Free South Westland (PFSW) project was launched by the then Minister of Conservation, with the ambitious goal to, by 2025, eliminate brushtail possums (Trichosurus vulpecula), ship rats (Rattus rattus) and stoats (Mustela erminea) from the project area of 107,000 hectares.
The project is a partnership between the tangata whenua of South Westland, Te Rūnanga o Makaawhio, the Department of Conservation (DOC), and the NEXT Foundation; with additional funding support from Predator Free 2050 Limited, Jasmine Social Investments, and OSPRI. It is governed by the Board of Predator Free South Westland Ltd (PFSW Ltd), and implemented by Zero Invasive Predators Ltd (ZIP)—both PFSW Ltd and ZIP are not-for-profit companies.
‘Elimination’ will be achieved when possums, ship rats and stoats are largely absent from the area and any that incur into the area are detected and removed before they establish and spread across their potential habitat. In general, core zones within the project area are almost always maintained as predator-free, while surrounding buffer zones are subject to the sporadic presence of predators as a result of incursion.
This report describes the actions that the PFSW project has taken to eliminate possums, ship rats and stoats from the project area, the results of the actions, and some of the native plant and animal outcomes of the project through to June 2024.