Highlights and wins 2025

Thank you for standing with us and being a strong voice for nature over the past year. None of the following conservation highlights would have been possible without you. We thank every donor, volunteer, branch, and supporter – together, we can achieve a future where nature and people flourish.

HOPE TAKES FLIGHT 

This year brought a host of precious native plants and animals into living rooms across the country through Endangered Species Aotearoa Season 2. Co-hosted by Forest & Bird chief executive Nicola Toki and Pax Assadi, the series journeyed to remote corners of Aotearoa New Zealand and the South Pacific, meeting some of the DOC rangers, scientists, iwi, and community volunteers protecting our most vulnerable wildlife. 

Forest & Bird’s involvement shone through in multiple episodes. Kaikōura Branch Chair Ailsa McGilvaryHoward and her husband Ted were featured hand-rearing Hutton’s shearwater chicks to establish new colonies. 

Hauraki Gulf coordinator Bianca Ranson highlighted the ecological challenges facing giant manta rays and other species in Tīkapa Moana, while freshwater advocate Tom Kay championed wetland protection and naturebased flood solutions. 

Meanwhile, our Too Cool to Lose, Too Warm to Wait campaign ramped up urgency around climate action. Showcasing 50 native species and places threatened by climate impacts, we pushed for immediate government action on emissions reduction, native forest restoration, and wetland protection. 

Forest & Bird’s newest reserve, Arowhenua Bush, was protected forever with the signing of a QEII covenant, the culmination of member Fraser Ross’s five-decade restoration of the last tall podocarp forest remnant on South Canterbury’s lower plains. At Moore’s Bush, north of Dunedin, researchers discovered endemic two spider species completely new to science.

CHOOSE NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS 

Our advocacy contributed to a strong nature-based solutions direction being adopted in more than a dozen local government policy and strategy documents. Forest & Bird staff engaged across numerous central government consultations to ensure that nature remains central to climate adaptation, infrastructure, resource management, and risk-reduction policy. 

In March, we published a new nature-based solutions resource in partnership with local government, iwi and hapū, and private-sector partners. This showcased a selection of successful projects in Aotearoa looking at the problem being solved and the multiple co-benefits for local communities. These included making room for rivers, daylighting streams, building urban wetlands, restoring coastal wetlands, and removing browsing mammals from native forests. 

Nearly 12,000 hard copies of Nō Te Ao Tūroa Ngā Rongoā Choose Nature-based Solutions were distributed throughout Aotearoa, with the resource presented to more than 10 councils and showcased on the global stage at the UN Adaptation Futures Conference. 

Our nature-based solutions mahi earned positive feedback from local and central government staff, elected members, and the private sector. There’s a growing recognition that nature-based solutions are essential for a climate-resilient future, helping address real-world challenges such as flooding, landslides, wildfires, and coastal inundation.

SAVE DENNISTON CAMPAIGN 

Forest & Bird’s campaign to protect the Denniston Plateau from coal mining achieved remarkable momentum this year. We established a strong coalition with climate organisations, while generous donors gifted more than $210,000 through public appeals. 

We commissioned a compelling 16-minute documentary Stand up for Nature: Save Denniston to showcase the plateau’s irreplaceable biodiversity and the mine’s devastating climate impact – a 50-million-tonne carbon bomb and toxic acid mine drainage. This premiered at Parliament in an event attended by MPs and invited guests. Labour’s climate spokesperson spoke for many when she called the case against the coking coal mine “gobsmackingly obvious”. 

Free billboard space, an 11-page Forest & Bird magazine spread, and record-breaking webinar attendance helped garner overwhelming public support. 

In October, the team launched a national petition calling for permanent scientific reserve status. Within two weeks, more than 10,000 people had signed. An article in Wilderness magazine alerted trampers to the potential loss of this remarkable landscape. 

Forest & Bird is preparing to challenge Bathurst’s fast-track application by gathering evidence on the plateau’s unique ecology, coal economics, and the project’s wider environmental impacts. Meanwhile, global market shifts favour the case to save Denniston. China announced it will halt new coal-powered steel foundries, and coking coal prices have softened. 

BIRD OF THE YEAR TURNS 20 

New Zealand’s fierce falcon, kārearea, claimed victory in the 20th anniversary Bird of the Year competition, securing the crown with more than 14,000 votes. This remarkable raptor joins an elite group as only the third species to win twice. 

This milestone competition saw record-breaking engagement, with more than 75,000 people casting their votes – with 87% coming from within Aotearoa. Through traditional media, Bird of the Year reached an estimated 5.85 million people across the globe. 

To mark the 20th anniversary, Forest & Bird launched the popular Birdle NZ daily quiz. We also published the beautifully illustrated Bird of the Year: Twenty Years of Ruffled Feathers: A celebration of the birds of Aotearoa by Ellen Rykers (RRP $45, Penguin Random House NZ). 

Waiata Manu is a beautiful new tradition honouring each winner with an original song. Musicians Delaney Davidson and Troy Kingi created the first piece for kārearea. Thanks to passionate New Zealanders like you, we’re building awareness and taking action for our precious endangered native birds. Your support makes conservation victories possible – helping ensure these magnificent species thrive for generations to come.

MARINE WINS! 

This year brought a landmark victory for Tīkapa Moana the Hauraki Gulf, with Forest & Bird working alongside mana whenua, local communities, and scientists to secure a new network of high protection areas, seafloor protection areas, and marine reserves, increasing overall protection from 0.3% to 6%. 

The win represents decades of dedicated advocacy and collaboration to safeguard one of New Zealand’s most treasured coastal environments. In April, our marine team hosted an Ōtepoti Dunedin event for international delegates attending the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) meeting. 

Forest & Bird has a long history of advocating for best-practice fishing measures to reduce bycatch deaths of albatross and petrels. Ōtepoti is the seabird capital of Aotearoa, and our Dunedin Branch volunteers are working to restore mainland breeding colonies for tītī sooty shearwaters and tītī wainui fairy prions. 

Your support also helps fund Forest & Bird’s Te Rere reserve in the Catlins, protecting a vital population of hoiho yellow-eyed penguins. Forest & Bird also championed ecosystembased fishing management in 2025. This approach considers entire ocean ecosystems – protecting food chains, habitats, and the delicate balance that sustains healthy seas. We opposed proposed regulatory changes that threaten marine biodiversity – commercial interests shouldn’t override environmental protections.

ENGAGING TAMARIKI 

Forest & Bird’s Kiwi Conservation Club (KCC) is nurturing the next generation of young conservationists, with more than 2000 tamariki participating in events throughout 2025. 

Four Wild Things magazines reached thousands of young readers, while the Incredible Insect webinar with Te Papa Press broke records – 170 questions poured in before it even started! 

KCC partnered with the Bat Collab for citizen science bat monitoring, while mascot Polly Pekapeka and her two bat cousins visited children nationwide, sharing conservation adventures. 

KCC members contributed 1300+ photos, stories, creations, and comments in support of our Too Cool to Lose campaign, helping raise awareness of climate change on endangered plants and animals. New adult KCC volunteers – subject experts, activators, and supporters – are helping more Kiwi children connect with nature.

YOUTH VOICES 

Forest & Bird supports teenagers and young adults to learn about conservation and mobilise for environmental action. During 2025, our seven Youth Hubs nationwide supported 32 Youth leaders and more than 250 volunteers. 

Youth campaigns lead Petra Cogger, 15, presented a powerful oral submission on the Treaty Principles Bill to Parliament’s Justice Committee, earning major media coverage. 

This year also saw the launch of Rangatahi Rangers, a mentoring initiative for Youth, delivered in partnership with Forest & Bird’s Pest Free Hibiscus Coast and Tarapuruhi Bushy Park national projects. 

Our passionate network of rangatahi aged 14–25 is making a difference. Through opportunities for advocacy, handson conservation, nature connection, and leadership development, Forest & Bird Youth is ensuring young people have the skills and knowledge to stand up for nature’s future. 

DEFENDING NATURE 

Forest & Bird’s legal team achieved important conservation wins this year, protecting New Zealand’s ecosystems through strategic court action. A major milestone came with the Environment Court’s final report on the Ngaruroro Water Conservation Order, confirming the river’s outstanding characteristics. 

Separately, the Court’s decision on Plan Change 7 to the Hawke’s Bay Regional Resource Management Plan means a braided section of the Ngaruroro River is now better protected, along with other outstanding water bodies in the region. 

Our legal team also helped save rare dune habitat in Northland. Following negotiations with Meridian, new consents for a solar farm at Ruakākā were issued, saving 9ha of wetlands and ensuring restoration of a further 5ha. 

In the Mackenzie Basin, the Environment Court recognised exceptional ecological values justify controlled rules for intensified farming operations, including topdressing and oversowing. This win helps protect a rare tussock dryland habitat, home to native plants, lizards, birds, and the locally endemic robust grasshopper. 

In October, the Environment Court blocked major groundwater extraction in the Ruataniwha Basin, Hawke’s Bay. Working with iwi and Fish & Game, Forest & Bird successfully argued against extracting 26% of available groundwater. The Court acknowledged cumulative effects and threats to the mauri of the water. 

Forest & Bird was invited to comment on five fast-track projects, including TTR’s seabed mining project in Taranaki, Oceana Gold’s Waihi North mine in the Coromandel, and the King’s Quarry extension, Auckland. As we head towards next year’s general election, Forest & Bird is calling for the unnecessary and undemocratic fast-track legislation to be repealed. 

HOLDING THE LINE 

Throughout 2025, Forest & Bird has been defending the environment against the government’s rollback of environmental protections. Our Save Freshwater campaign saw more than 4000 New Zealanders write to the Prime Minister asking him to protect our rivers and lakes. 

Chief executive Nicola Toki presented Forest & Bird’s submission to the select committee considering the Treaty Principles Bill to explain its risks to nature conservation. We campaigned against changes to the Conservation Act that would make it easier to sell off or swap conservation land for development. 

Our advocacy team also called for high-value West Coast stewardship land to be reclassified and added to national parks, while our legal experts made submissions on sweeping changes to the Resource Management Act. We highlighted the devastating ecological impact of allowing trophy deer hunting in national parks through “Herds of Special Interest” for introduced pests such as sika deer, supported Predator Free New Zealand 2050, and championed a climate-resilient future.

CELEBRATING FOREST & BIRD VOLUNTEERS 

Forest & Bird’s Old Blue 2025 awards recognised exceptional volunteers whose dedication is protecting New Zealand’s natural world. They included South Otago’s Jane and Jim Young, who run a native plant nursery raising $10,000 annually and donate 500 plants to revegetation projects. Jim has trapped predators at hoiho yellow-eyed penguin sites since 2010. 

Ecologist Kelvin Lloyd earned recognition for providing expert evidence in court cases protecting wetlands and opposing destructive developments like the Te Kuha mine. 

Mo Turnbull vastly expanded the Makarora predator-control project, Mount Aspiring National Park, helping protect critically endangered mohua. Upper Coromandel Branch received Forest & Bird’s Branch Award for outstanding advocacy work, securing over $1 million in conservation funding while managing four environmental restoration projects. 

Six members received Tī Kōuka Awards for decades of service, including David Cornick (33 years with Lower Hutt Branch) and Peter Smith (29 years as Ashburton treasurer). 

Branches nationwide backed the “Your Vote, Your Backyard” local election campaign, promoting nature-friendly candidates. Regional hui in Ōamaru and Rotorua sparked new interest in Forest & Bird, strengthened connections between branches, and celebrated collaborative conservation efforts across the country.

CONSERVATION IN ACTION 

At Forest & Bird, we’re wild about nature – and our national conservation projects delivered some remarkable wins across the motu in 2025. 

In Marlborough, our Te Hoiere bat recovery team used Jobs for Nature funding to deploy new trap technology and saw rat numbers plummet to undetectable levels. Our seventh bat-monitoring season was the most successful yet. 

In the Pelorus Bridge and Rai Valley area, we identified 28 new roost trees and captured an incredible 380 pekapeka long-tailed bats. 

At Tautuku, in the Catlins, the three-year Jobs for Nature programme wrapped, leaving a legacy of expanded pest control across 6000ha of native forest, wetland, river, and coastal habitat and a better understanding of the project’s incredible biodiversity. The funding allowed the team to carry out native plant surveys and study mātātā South Island fernbird predation and titipounamu rifleman breeding. 

In the North Island, Pest Free Hibiscus Coast’s 175 volunteers manage 3000 traps across 3100ha. Local bird and lizard life is recovering strongly, and the project is strongly supported by the community. 

At Tarapuruhi Bushy Park, our only fenced sanctuary, April’s swift rodent breach response was a credit to the project’s dedicated volunteers and staff. 

The new team at Ark in the Park, in the Waitākere Ranges, overhauled the project’s predator control methods, and rat tracking indices plummeted to below 5% in all known kōkako breeding areas, setting them up for success this summer. 

Our Give a Trap platform continues to go from strength to strength, connecting generous donors with community trapping groups nationwide, including many Forest & Bird conservation projects.