triage ward in Godzone

Protecting the vulnerable is an underpinning tenet of not just conservation, but movements to recognise and protect human rights, provision of welfare systems and nets in modern society, and is often a charismatic angle of the above and other ventures.

A natural affinity to things that are rare, special, remote or vulnerable is often tapped into very effectively by conservationists. New Zealand boasts an unfortunately comprehensive array of species who fit these parameters and triage conservation could well cast a critical eye over our efforts to drag species and ecosystems back from the brink that are arguably poked.

Most of our species that are classified as being in serious trouble now have a perverse reliance upon the actions of humans to ensure their persistence. Far from self-propelled ongoing evolution and spatial distribution changes, our takahe, kakapo, kokako, Powelliphanta snails, and scores of others occupy another plane altogether.

Cuddled in boxes and shunted through airports, their geographic distribution is pure science with a militaristic edge. Dropped strategically from choppers often with dedicated minders these birds and others are being propped up by the ingenuity of the very species that deprived them of sufficient resilience to survive alone.

And the resources are significant to do so. Between 1080 to hold back the tide of mammalian predators from utterly destroying our ecological systems, and individual targeted endangered species management: the overworked and desperately underfunded DOC and NGO stalwarts have their work cut out for them.

When one considers the arguable futility of some of the efforts, the great cost of keeping bad things from mainland and sanctuary islands and the 'frozen in time' vulnerability of our fauna and flora...it is not then hard to ask the hard question. Why bother?

If the dumpy form of the takahe and kakapo cannot fight back to vicious stoats and ferrets then is that not just evolution in action? If the kokako cannot defend its nest from a plump possum who spies a tasty snack tweeting in the trees, then is its extinction not an inevitable, predictable and quite reasonable outcome? And if the kiwi chick jostling around in the Northland bush cannot scamper fast enough from the un-muzzled pig dog who decides to tear it apart in the name of afternoon tea, then is that not just survival of the fittest?

In purest terms....it is. Evolution is propelled by changes (often rapid) in abiotic and biotic characteristics including shifts in predator prey interactions. The sink or swim approach could possibly see the kakapo, kokako, and other species in desperate trouble simply left alone, the signicant resources for them promptly withdrawn.

So why persist?

In my view it is simply a question of ethics. Kokako did not one day wake up and note the presence of a pregnant ferret who somehow managed to float here on a raft. They woke up to a signicant and sustained (and thoroughly purposeful) series of introductions of species to make NZ look a little more like bonny England. And whether or not the people doing that had any idea of what they were doing and what the implications would be is a moot point but no matter...

We have what we have, and conservation in New Zealand must persist with the vulnerable on an ethical basis if nothing else. We are one the worlds 28 biodiversity hotspots with a level of endemism virtually comparable to Madagascar and have much that we must save not just for ourselves, but for the rest of the planet.

Biodiversity underpins ecological function and resilience, and the sum of the parts is far greater than the percieved value of any one element. So...we push on...for the sake of every kakapo that fancies a chopper ride....and so we should.