Keeping Our Kiwi Safe

Our Stories: Issue 60 

Celine Filbee, Trust Manager, said the Trust have five staff members working across four projects.

The organisation focuses on education, advocacy, breeding and trapping predators in protected areas. The breeding programme is run in partnership with the Rotokare Scenic ReserveTrust.

“We employ a full time kiwi ranger who looks after the project. We estimate there are 200 kiwi in the reserve, 50 of which we hope to translocate in the next few months.”

“We partner with almost every other kiwi conservation organisation in Taranaki, such as the Taranaki Maunga Project, Kiwis for Kiwi and the Department of Conservation.”

“What we do is a good fit with TSB Community Trust because we are highly engaged in conservation and we support the work of other organisations they fund. So it allows us all to work together for a greater result,” Celine said.

Without help, kiwi are likely to be extinct in the wild within two generations. The Taranaki Kiwi Trust is a charitable organisation working to protect our iconic bird in the region. 

Celine said securing funding for Taranaki Kiwi Trust can be difficult, since the organisation does not have a physical office. “If you don’t have a shop window, and are not offering things to sell, generating income can be difficult. We rely on grants and sponsorships.”

Grants totalling $77,300 from the TSB Community Trust enabled the purchase of trap hardware and supports employment roles in the Trust. “We are grateful for the funding, as it has enabled landowners to be proactive about protecting kiwi on their properties.”

“The Community Trapping Project involves about 35 private properties all over Taranaki. Once we have proof that kiwi are present, we work with the landowner to install, audit and maintain the traps. Most of the landowners probably couldn’t afford the traps otherwise as they are expensive.”

“The project is raising awareness of how many kiwi there are in the Eastern Hill Country. We have clusters of neighbouring landowners involved. Our goal is to concentrate on those areas to develop release sites for kiwi in the future,” Celine said.