Venu Menon
Wellington, November 14,2023
Zealandia in Wellington is the world’s first fully-fenced urban ecosanctuary located just minutes from the city centre.
The sanctuary draws nearly 140,000 visitors annually who flock there to see vulnerable native species, such as tieke, spotted kiwi, and tuatara living in the wild within 2km from downtown Wellington.
The 225-hectare ecosanctuary has reintroduced more than 20 species of native animals, some of which have been extinct in New Zealand for over 100 years.
The 8.6km fence that rings the sanctuary is a unique feature designed to keep out mammalian predators, which has resulted in rare and endangered birds, such as the tui, kaka and kereru, thriving in the protected habitat.
Tourism industry recognition
Zealandia won the prestigious Air New Zealand Supreme Tourism Award presented by Tourism Industry Aotearoa last week.
The ecosanctuary also won the Airbnb Tourism Excellence Award (Small-Medium Business category).
“We feel honoured to receive these awards,” said Zealandia Chief Executive Dr Danielle Shanahan.
“It shows that regenerative tourism is more than just a dream, and that visitors can support globally leading environment and community outcomes like those created by our small not-for-profit,” Shanahan added.
Zealandia earned recognition for its “outstanding regenerative approach that it embraces. The sanctuary has deep community support with hundreds of volunteers and thousands of members. It delivers world-class learning experiences for youth and has transformed the birdlife of Wellington, making it one of the only cities in the world where bird biodiversity is on the rise,” said a November 8 statement by the Wellington City Council, following an event to honour the winners of the tourism awards.
Long-term vision rooted in the past
At the core of the Zealandia conservation project is a 500-year-vision to restore Wellington’s forest and freshwater ecosystems.
The sanctuary takes its name from the unique history of New Zealand’s landmass.
Aotearoa’s flora and fauna are distinct from those of every other large landmass on earth for having been a mammal- free environment, until mammals were introduced by Polynesian settlers around 800 years ago.
The arrival of Europeans brought mammalian pests such as stoats and possums.
Prior to the arrival of introduced pests, bird species endemic to the New Zealand bush flourished. These included the moa, tuatara, kiwi, weta, kakepo, huia, and many other species found nowhere else on the planet.
Tectonic shift
New Zealand’s landmass originated from the Southern Hemisphere supercontinent known as Gondwana, which split about 170 million years ago to form Africa.
The supercontinent further broke up to form India and South America.
The New Zealand landmass broke away from Gondwana around 80 million years ago, splitting away from Australia and Antarctica as the Tasman Sea came into being.
Owing to its long isolation, New Zealand gave rise to a unique natural habitat free from the presence of mammals, where bird species such as moa, kaka, tuatara, kiwi, weta, kakepo, huia and many others flourished, and where the largest predator was the Haast eagle.
The advent of the Polynesian rat, the kiore, left several native species facing extinction. That threat was heightened when European vessels later brought with them the ship rat as well as the Norway rat. The danger to native species peaked with the introduction of stoats and possums.
The legacy of this human settlement in Aotearoa has been the loss of over 50 native species of bird, frog, reptile, bat, fish, invertebrate, and plant.
Venu Menon is an Indian Newslink reporter based in Wellington
