Protecting our native plants, animals and wild places, on land and in our oceans. Help us to help nature.
Vehicles off beaches
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Forest & Bird’s campaign to ban vehicles from beaches first began as a drive to protect New Zealand’s rarest bird – the fairy tern – whose nesting sites on Pakiri Beach north of Auckland were destroyed by off-road vehicles.
Fairy Tern
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Vehicles pose a serious threat to the critically endangered fairy tern (chick pictured above).
With a population of around 36 individuals that includes only 10 breeding pairs, the New Zealand fairy tern is probably our rarest bird.
Fairy terns build their nests on exposed, low-lying areas of shell-covered sand on Northland’s beaches.
The speckled colouring of their eggs camouflages them from predators - but also makes them very difficult for drivers to see and they are easily crushed by vehicles’ tyres.
Since then, concern about the harm being caused by vehicles on beaches has grown into a national campaign and a broader vision to protect natural dune formations, native vegetation and wildlife areas that are prime habitat for wading and coastal birds, such as New Zealand dotterels and bar-tailed godwits
Vehicles on beaches can damage the natural formation of sand dunes, which are important because they help protect land, people and houses from tidal surges and cyclones.
The native grasses and tussocks that cover our sand dunes are particularly important because they help retain water and prevent dunes from drying out and becoming eroded. They also provide shelter for sand-dwelling birds, lizards and insects.
Damaging this habitat can have a disastrous long-term effect not only on our much-loved beaches and dunes.
If we protect them, they will protect us.
Vehicles are the biggest cause of damage to dunes, the coastal environment and the plants and animals that live there.
They destroy native habitats and vegetation and leave dunes exposed to damage from storms and erosion.
Vehicles also create noise pollution that drowns out the sounds we would normally enjoy, such as the crash of waves on the beach, or the calls of seabirds. They also pose a conflict with other beach users, such as children playing or people walking on beaches, and are a risk to people’s safety.
We recognise that some beach users require vehicles in some circumstances, such as towing a boat to a launching site, but these uses can be catered to by restricting vehicles to approved access points for specific purposes only.
Without adequate controls many of our beaches resemble busy highways, with large numbers of vehicles being driven at high speeds and over vulnerable dunes and coastal habitats.
We aim to work with communities, coast care, recreation, fishing and other environmental groups, local and regional government and iwi to help stop the damage that vehicles cause to our coastal environment.
We would like our beaches to be a safe place for our coastal wildlife to flourish and people to enjoy swimming, fishing and enjoying our beautiful coastal environment. Banning vehicles would help restore our beaches to the peaceful, natural places they once were, for the enjoyment of everyone.