Horizons Regional Council has welcomed the country’s largest biosecurity conference to the region.
The Council says the NETS2025 Conference forms part of a week-long celebration of the work done to protect the environment against harmful threats which can damage the economy, rare habitats, and local wellbeing.
The conference will take place 23-25 July in Palmerston North in the middle of the nationally-celebrated Biosecurity Week.
“The theme for NETS2025 is Haumaru koiora kia pai āmua – Biosecurity for a better future,” says Council biodiversity, biosecurity and partnerships manager, Craig Davey.
“Biosecurity work provides many benefits in the Horizons Region. It protects productive primary industries such as agriculture and forestry from the impact of pests and diseases, safeguarding key pillars of our regional economy.
“Research from University of Auckland shows invasive species cost more than $100 million annually in damages to economic sectors. Biosecurity work – be it trapping possums or controlling Old Man’s Beard – helps to limit and reduce this impact.”
Tackling pest plants and animals already in the Horizons Region, and working to keep others out, also helps to retain the region’s most rare and threatened ecosystem types, says Mr Davey.
“Some of these ecosystems are the last 1% of their type remaining, and are home to plant and animal species listed as nationally critical.”
People’s wellbeing is intrinsically tied to the state of the environment, so protecting it through biosecurity work helps to maintain and enhance personal wellbeing, says Mr Davey.
“No matter why people value the environment – for the food it provides, the space for wildlife, cultural connection, or otherwise – biosecurity work plays a part.”
Additional funding granted through Horizons’ 2024-34 Long-term Plan will help Council staff to deliver enhanced biosecurity work in coming years.
“We will be expanding our bait station network into at least four new areas throughout the region, enabling us to do more possum control and target this key carrier of bovine tuberculosis,” Mr Davey said.
“These new areas will be in addition to the 1.6 million hectares we already cover with 210,000 bait stations. Typically, our index score for possum control is 2-3% – well below the target of 10% – and shows our efforts are making a difference.
“Additional funding will also enable us to do more work to exclude ungulates (deer and goats) from rare and threatened ecosystems, helping to preserve these special areas for generations to come.
“Furthermore, we will be putting more work into controlling Old Man’s Beard, pest conifers, and other pest plant species which can be just as destructive to environments as pest animals.”
Biosecurity Week is also an opportunity acknowledge everyone working to combat pest plants and animals, said Mr Davey.
“Landowners, farmers, urban trappers, community groups, freshwater advocates and more are also doing the hard yards, sometimes in conjunction with us. They too should take time this week to reflect on the biosecurity wins they have achieved.”
“All this mahi carries the goal of making our region a healthy environment where people thrive, both now and into the future,” he said.
To learn more about biosecurity work in the Horizons Region, see https://www.horizons.govt.nz/managing-natural-resources/plant-animal-pests.
You can read the University of Auckland research here.
