Bring It On: “Largest and Most Challenging” Island Restoraton Initiative Kicks Off

An international initiative to remove invasive species and restore native wildlife rises to the challenge of bringing back three New Zealand islands to their natural state, with an endgame of rewilding 40 globally significant island-ocean ecosystems by 2030.

“New Zealand’s three Island-Ocean Connection Challenge (IOCC) island restoration projects will be the largest and most challenging our country has ever attempted,” says New Zealand Department of Conservation (DOC) national eradication manager Stephen Horn. “Their scale, remoteness from the mainland, difficult terrain, wild weather, multiple animal pest species, and the presence of human settlements for two of the three islands pose unique challenges.”

With the addition of Makahuka Island, Rakiura Island, and Chatham Island, the IOCC will have 20 ongoing restoration and rewilding projects. Each island is four to 15 times larger than the country’s biggest island, previously cleared of invasives. Thanks to trail cameras and artificial intelligence to identify pests, the initiative has better chances of clearing the islands of invasive species. Led by Island Conservation, Rewild, and UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the initiative brings together the government, Indigenous communities, and local organizations to not only restore what the DOC calls “living remnants of a prehistoric world” but also to strengthen climate resilience. The New Zealand government invested $54 million of the $202 million required for the projects, while the New Zealand Nature Fund conducted fundraising efforts to make up for the rest.