The Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust: An Economic Analysis

Kaval, P.

University of Waikato

2004

University of Waikato

Pamela Kaval’s personal website (hosted by the University of Waikato) 

Waikato Management School

In the centre of the North Island of New Zealand is a 3400 hectare forested area called Maungatautari. In the early part of the 21st century, a group of individuals felt that this land was an important relic to preserve and considered forming a trust to protect it. A public interest survey in 2001 found a favourable majority of the 2000 respondents in the Waikato Region supportive of protecting Maungatautari with a pest-proof fence and restoring the area for visitors. These favourable results led to the official formation of the Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust (MEIT) in 2002.

MEIT’s main goal is to protect the forest by eradicating the non-native pest species and reintroducing native species. To accomplish this task, the MEIT created seven project goals in September of 2003 (MEIT, 2003):

• To build and maintain a 47 km pest proof fence around the Maungatautari Forest

• To eliminate all warm blooded animal pests within this fence

• To reintroduce threatened New Zealand native species such as the giant weta, tuatara, kokako and kiwi

• To create a wildlife haven where visitors can access the gates and tracks of the area

• To encourage New Zealand wildlife education

• To establish an education facility

• To develop a sustainable business

In essence, the trustees of Maungatautari would like to create a mainland island. Mainland islands are pieces of land that are intensively managed to keep out introduced pest species.

These areas are considered “islands” as they are surrounded on all sides by either a fence, intensive management, or a geographical feature such as a rock wall (DOC, 2003). Currently there are seven established mainland islands in New Zealand – two are on the South Island: Hurunui River and Totoiti Nature Recovery Area – while the others are on the North Island: Trounson Kauri Park, Northern Te Urewere, Paengaroa Reserve, Boundary Stream Reserve and Karori Wildlife Sanctuary. The mainland island most similar to Maungatautari is the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary in Wellington and will therefore be the one we conduct our comparisons with.

Keywords:

Maungatautari, Economic analysis, Conservation

Case study

Waikato

Outdoor Recreation

Outdoors

Mountains, National Parks

Impacts - environmental

1054

July 12, 2012

July 12, 2012