Jobs for Nature boost for South Westland

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

By local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:

Underspend on a $1.2 billion dollar conservation programme means work in South Westland is to be extended until the middle of next year.

Jobs for Nature has funded nearly 11,000 hours of community conservation in the three years to the end of June.

The multi-agency programme which was due to finish this winter will now run until June 2024.

Department of Conservation Western South Island director Mark Davies said the extension had been made possible due to an underspend of about $850,000 from the original allocation for the region.

Davies said the focus of the programme was to support the communities in South Westland however the quicker return of visitors to the Glaciers post-covid meant the project funding had been underspent, enabling the extension.

"Visitors came back a bit faster."

It effectively enabled a good opportunity to extend the programme timeframe beyond that envisaged which was "a great outcome".

The $1.19b Jobs for Nature programme set up in the wake of Covid-19 managed funding across multiple government agencies as an economic stimulus to benefit the environment, people and the regions - with South Westland a big beneficiary from 2020 onward.

A report to the West Conservation Board on August 25 noted the South Westland Conservation and Tourism Jobs for Nature Programme had the green light for a fourth year.

This effectively enables its business partners to continue to contribute towards conservation outcomes in conjunction with DOC and support the retention of employees throughout the winter low season.

"In the final quarter of the 2022-23 year, 19 of the business partners carried out a further 1515 hours of conservation work," the report said.

"This means that year three of the programme ended in June with over 10,900 hours of work completed in total."

Thoughout the past year business partners in the programme had contributed to track and amenities upgrades, species monitoring, weed and predator control, digital archiving, and biodiversity assets support.

"This has been an asset to conservation in South Westland and we look forward to continuing this collaboration with our business partners into 2023-24."