Rēti Matawhāiti mō te Taiao Māori Natural Environment Targeted Rate

Since July 2018, residential property rates across Auckland have included a Natural Environment Targeted Rate (NETR).

The Natural Environment Targeted Rate (NETR) is an additional rate alongside general rates. It helps to:

• protect our native animals
• enhance our natural environment.

Funds from these rates let us carry out plans, strategies and legislation including our:

• Regional Pest Management Plan
• Indigenous Biodiversity Strategy
• responsibilities under the Biosecurity Act 1993 and Local Government Act 2002.

Projects funded by the NETR help protect our natural environment and tackle the pests, weeds and diseases that threaten our native species.

The key areas the NETR is being used for includes:

Our aim is to prevent the spread of kauri dieback disease and reduce its impact in areas where it is present. Our focus is on infrastructure in regional and local parks.

Our work includes:

• opening kauri-safe tracks with cleaning stations and ensuring the right decisions are made prioritising track work
• surveillance and monitoring to understand where we need focus our efforts to protect healthy trees and prevent the spread of disease from a site
• treatment of infected trees and research on the disease and improved treatments
• an expanded ambassador programme helping educate visitors to our parks and islands - education is a key factor in driving behaviour change to help protect kauri.

This programme is also responsible for managing myrtle rust.

To protect our offshore environments– aquatic and on the islands – we need to:

• keep pests off the Hauraki Gulf islands using prevention and eradication activities
• aim to reduce the risk of plant and animal pests being transported to the islands by the public and commercial operators
• boost protection for native marine ecosystems and species by monitoring, surveillance, threat response, policy planning, and education of those using our harbours and marine environments
• increase protection of marine habitats and seabird populations.

Our region faces threats from pest plants and animals, including those in our freshwater habitats.

To protect native biodiversity in priority mainland ecosystems we aim to:

• increase and improve management of priority native habitats
• futureproof against emerging pests
• reduce the human spread of freshwater pests
• use biocontrol (control of pests via natural predators) and enforcement around the nursery and pet trades.

Our community conservation effort covers a range of initiatives designed to engage and empower communities to protect and restore our environment.

We aim to improve these initiatives, by:

• increasing connections between different natural habitats in rural and urban landscapes using ecological corridors
• managing priority sites on private land and working with private landowners to protect and restore high value biodiversity
• providing tools, resources and funding support to community conservation groups
• increasing private sector and business participation in conservation activities.

We also aim to display and share information on biodiversity and biosecurity work. One example of this is the new digital conservation website, Tiaki Tāmaki Makaurau / Conservation Auckland