Conservation Minister Kiri Allan is welcoming a new initiative encouraging philanthropic contributions to save our national icon, the kiwi.
Speaking at the launch of the Kiwis for kiwi Endowment Fund, which aims to raise $20m over the next five years to support kiwi conservation, she said the taonga species faces multiple pressures.
"Kiwi populations are declining at a steady rate of two per cent a year and cover only a fraction of their former range; we want to flip that around to a two per cent increase.
"Loss of habitat, introduced predators, and increasingly, the impacts of climate change are taking their toll. Right now, only six per cent of chicks in the wild survive to adulthood.
"Fortunately, we have turned a corner toward restoring kiwi to their former range so that one day we’ll see kiwi in our backyards.
"We have a Kiwi Recovery Plan with the ambitious goal of 100,000 kiwi by 2030, Government has committed $19.7 million of Jobs for Nature funding towards restoration projects, and Kiwis for kiwi are working closely with iwi and hāpu, community groups, private landowners and businesses so that kiwi go from endangered to widespread.
"The Kiwis for kiwi Endowment Fund will allow philanthropists to contribute directly to ensure all species of kiwi are abundant for our tamariki and mokopuna.
"The endowment fund will help grow important kiwi restoration programmes as we all continue to work to secure the future of our national icon," Allan says.
Former Prime Ministers Sir John Key and Helen Clark are joint patrons of the fund.
