It’s been another year of milestones and great achievements for Save the Kiwi. Our highly skilled team coordinated the translocation of 324 kiwi to their new homes.  Translocations are an essential tool for growing the kiwi population, as the suitable habitat is sometimes so far away from the nearest wild population that it would take decades for them to naturally disperse.   

Translocations are key to making our Kōhanga Kiwi kaupapa the success that it is. Working with the team on the ground at Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari, we caught and safely transferred 273 kiwi to sites on the west side of the North Island.  We supported the transfer of 41 kiwi pukupuku from Kapiti Island (arguably the country’s original kōhanga site, and the inspiration for our North Island brown strategy) to Brook Waimārama Sanctuary in Nelson. We had thought this was the first time kiwi pukupuku had set foot on Te Wai Ponamu (South Island) in over a century, but a mere few weeks later a remnant wild population was discovered by a hunter. A double success story for our smallest kiwi species. 

But the translocation that grabbed the headlines the most was the establishment of a kiwi population on Waiheke Island, an extension of Auckland’s urban population, and made possible thanks to the hard work to Te Korowai o Waiheke and all their partners to make it suitable habitat. 

This speaks to the sweet spot that Save the Kiwi operates in – kiwi where the people are. Our vision is to see kiwi go from endangered to everywhere, and for all New Zealanders to be able to (relatively easily) experience our national bird in the wild.  We have started to reshape our long term goal to align this, and how we actually measure what ‘’everywhere’’ means.  We look forward to sharing this next year. 

Translocations are key but the other main way we are growing kiwi, and is above all what kiwi need, is by protecting them where they already live (aka in situ) via pest and predator control.  This manifests in a number of ways. 

We provide over $400,000 per annum in grants to community/iwi-led conservation groups, and provide them with support and training.  This year we published the Ferret Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) and Ferret trapping guidelines, written by our national predator control advisor, John Bissell. In addition, we are working with the Forest Owners Association to support them in understanding and protecting kiwi in their forestry blocks. We are leading a piece of research to understand kiwi behaviour during harvest, which will help forest owners know the best course of action to protect the kiwi in their forest. 

Another particular project we are involved with that is having a significant impact is the large scale, iwi-led forest restoration project called Ruakumara Pae Maunga (RPM). Through the employment of two individuals from Te Whānau ā Apanui, Save the Kiwi has made a genuine contribution to its success.  We look forward to working in partnership with RPM to deliver a nation-wide programme of work to share this lived experience with other hapū/iwi who wish to be professional practitioners and decision makers in this mahi.

We have made great progress with Kiwi Avoidance Training with a significant investment in a new database and app which will allow for much more efficient scheduling and data management of the programme. We currently have 50 trainers nationwide and saw more than three thousand dogs trained this year. KAT can reduce the risk of a dog attacking kiwi, but is not a silver bullet, and with that in mind we are also working on a resource called Dog Owner Guidelines, to provide further information to support dog owners keen to do the right thing to keep their dog and wildlife safe. We strongly believe (and have examples of it) that kiwi can thrive in the presence of dogs if they have humans who are responsible dog owners. 

Financially we are blessed to have a committed stable of corporate sponsors, and consistent funding from Central Government via the Save Our Iconic Kiwi funding package. We successfully bid to Treasury (in partnership with DOC) for this in 2016, and are very pleased that it endures to this day.

However, the end of this financial year also marked the conclusion of our five-year, $19.7m Jobs for Nature Funding package. We are incredibly proud of what we achieved with this funding and will be releasing an impact report early 2026. As a sneak preview of the report, (spoiler alert) we smashed our goals of hectares under pest and predator control (with 167,000ha in total vs target of 104,000) and 227 full time equivalents (FTE) created vs a goal of 100.

But the biggest benefit and gain from this funding was that we had a moment in time where this critical work was funded at a sufficient level to properly resource the people and tools needed, and it was assured for a five-year period.  It recognised conservation work as a skilled career path and allowed us to pay a fair salary/wage for this.  Although this funding package has concluded, the benefits of creating a skilled taiao workforce will endure.

We are grateful to the incredible team of skilled people who have joined Save the Kiwi and who remain. To our board, thank you for your support and faith in our team and the work we do, and a special welcome back to Dr. John McLennan, one of our founding Trustees who has rejoined the board after stepping away for a few years. 

Our long-term goal is that we (collective ‘we’ in the conservation space) are so successful that we put ourselves out of business, but until then, there is much work to be done. And we are definitely up for the task.