Pest management is an important tool for ensuring the protection of New Zealand’s biodiversity.
Pests in the Auckland region – including plant, animal and pathogen pests – and the Biosecurity Act have both changed in the past decade, so Auckland Council is looking at changing ways it manages pests too, by reviewing its 2007 Pest Management Strategy.
The council’s Environment and Community Committee agreed in mid-November to adopt a proposed new Regional Pest Management Plan for public consultation. The proposed plan was developed after consultation with several parties over the past three years, including industry representatives and mana whenua.
The proposed new pest management plan gives an updated framework for managing pests, including programmes to manage pests in parks, kauri dieback, freshwater biosecurity, possums, pest spread to the Hauraki Gulf Islands, and control on Aotea Great Barrier, Waiheke and Kawau Islands.
The council’s Biosecurity team believes there will be negative effects if some pest management programmes are not updated. For example, it is believed in the long term there would be wide scale canopy collapse and the loss of ecological and amenity values if the level of pest management on council parkland remains at its current level.
Have your say in 2018
The proposed pest management plan will go out for public consultation with the council’s 2018-2028 Long Term Plan. This will be an opportunity for Aucklanders to provide feedback on it and thus help shape the pest management objectives and programmes for the Auckland region in the next decade.
