2024/25 Impact
WHAT WE’RE MADE OF
Scroll down...
Proving what cities can do
Leadership in conservation isn’t just about what we achieve within our own project boundaries – it’s about changing the systems that make lasting change possible.
This past year, Predator Free Wellington has stepped into a broader role: demonstrating what urban conservation looks like at scale, mobilising a movement that extends far beyond Wellington, and ensuring the lessons we’re learning reshape how Aotearoa and the world approach conservation in cities.
Our leadership shows up in multiple ways – from bold public campaigns that connect identity to action, to sharing economic analysis that reframes conservation as an investment rather than cost, to international knowledge-sharing that gives others the tools to follow.
Through it all, we’re building something designed to sustain itself, proving that community-led conservation delivers lasting change.
Call Yourself a Kiwi – Connecting identity to action
Funding remains the most critical aspect of achieving our goals. We currently face a $1.75 million annual funding shortfall, largely due to decreased government funding from the upcoming financial year. While we continue to strongly advocate across all funding channels, we’re also willing to think creatively and try new approaches.
In June 2025, we launched a public fundraising campaign that operated outside our usual mode – but represents exactly the kind of innovation we need to embrace.
The ‘Call Yourself a Kiwi’ campaign emerged from a partnership with Wellington agency 81 and was hosted by PF2050 Limited and then the Predator Free NZ Trust, on behalf of all the PF2050 Landscape Projects across Aotearoa New Zealand.
The campaign’s central question cuts to the heart of our national identity: if there were no more kiwi, could you still call yourself one? Building off the premise that we’ve been taking our namesake and other native taonga for granted for too long, we challenged companies and everyday New Zealanders to give a dollar (or more!) for the right to keep calling themselves a Kiwi – supporting our work to create environments where the kiwi and all its mates can survive, and thrive.
Karen O’Leary and Dan Henry introduce the ‘Call Yourself a Kiwi?’ campaign
Economic impact: Reframing the conversation
Conservation work is often framed as a cost – something worthy but difficult to justify against competing priorities. We’re working to change that by demonstrating that predator elimination isn’t just an environmental expense, it’s a sound economic investment with returns that benefit everyone.
In 2025, we commissioned an independent economic assessment to quantify the full value of our work. The results show a return on investment of up to $2.49 for every dollar invested – and these returns are expected to grow over time. During Phase 1 on the Miramar Peninsula, the ROI was $1.29 per dollar. As we expanded into Phase 2 across a larger area, that return nearly doubled.
These aren’t abstract numbers. They represent real value generated through job creation (42 full-time positions through Jobs for Nature funding), substantial volunteer contributions (55,000 hours annually, worth approximately $2 million), avoided costs from pest damage to infrastructure, and innovation that has reduced operational costs by up to 75% per hectare compared to other methods. Our advances in detection technology alone have cut previous labour requirements by 30%.
The assessment also captures social co-benefits that have quantifiable monetary value: improved community cohesion, enhanced personal wellbeing through nature engagement, and public health gains from removing disease-spreading pests. Looking ahead, we expect additional economic benefits including tourism growth, enhanced property values, and continued public health improvements.
Everyone gets to enjoy the benefits. Predator free neighbourhoods mean safer native wildlife, healthier communities, reduced infrastructure damage, and stronger social connections. By demonstrating these returns to funders and stakeholders, we’re reframing the conversation from ‘conservation for conservation’s sake’ to ‘conservation as smart investment in community well-being and economic prosperity.’ It’s about showing leadership by being transparent about value creation and making the case for sustained investment in outcomes that matter to all Wellingtonians.
The return on investment in urban conservation is undeniable
Volunteers as our exit strategy
Many conservation projects struggle with the same trap: they can never leave. Success creates dependency – the more you achieve, the more resources you need to defend those gains forever.
We’re breaking that cycle through genuine partnership with volunteers, and it’s one of the most important aspects of our leadership.
We can’t be here forever, and we shouldn’t need to be!
Our model is deliberately designed with an end date. Once we’ve cleared an area, we need people who know that land intimately – who walk it daily, who are passionate about their neighbourhood, who understand what they’re protecting and why it matters.
What we’re building
Our huge network of volunteers help us move forward with our project and give us the security to defend areas when we leave. This year we’ve opened new areas (Truby King Park) for volunteers to manage, which expands part of our Phase 2 buffer.
What’s involved with volunteering?
We run workshops where we train and upskill new volunteers. They’re shown how to use our traps and bait stations, how to detect signs of rats and taught about rat behaviour. We then assign them a line of stations to check and from there, they work independently!
Each area has a group lead who manages and motivates their team. These skilled community leaders are running teams of experts who watch for rats sneaking into areas we’ve cleared. These eyes and ears on the ground are part of our exit strategy, giving us confidence in the long-term success of our project.
Our Phase 2 buffer is manged entirely by volunteers. The buffer runs from Ōwhiro Bay up through the green belt to Mt Cook and through to the waterfront, marking the boundary of Phases 2 and 3. Volunteers are involved in monitoring and maintaining 1000+ devices, ensuring the buffer’s effectiveness in preventing rat invasion from the west.
How big an impact do volunteers have?
It’s huge! Our team of 40 volunteers work around Miramar Peninsula, checking traps, bait stations and cameras. In our Phase 2 buffer, we have 124 volunteers managing 1,018 traps and bait stations, in nine zones, protecting 250 hectares.
This impact doesn’t include the more than 2,200 volunteers checking traps in their backyards and in reserves across Wellington. The dozens of community groups make a huge difference reducing rat numbers.
Learn more about our community heroes and find your local trapping group.
What’s next?
We’re evolving how we work with volunteers – we’re aiming to double our numbers in the next year. The kinds of volunteer tasks are also changing. More of our volunteers will move from generalists (who mainly check traps) to specialists. These specialised roles will focus on biosecurity: they’ll check chew cards and cameras, or train other volunteers. We’re currently rolling out this work which we’ll explain fully in the next report.
We are now also working closer with Predator Free Miramar (PFM) volunteers. Their amazing work since 2017 helped make the peninsula predator free. PFM founder Dan Henry was ready to step back a little from his organising role and the PFW crew now work in step with our other trained volunteers.
Dan’s highlights of the year include seeing more kākāriki, sharing knowledge with other groups around the country, and being a finalist for Sustainability Leader of the Year 2025 – all great chances to show the impact of PFM’s work.
We’re sharing our work globally
The world is watching Wellington.
Our urban blueprint – documenting five years of hard-won knowledge about removing rats, stoats and weasels from dense urban environments – is being shared with similar projects around the world. It’s a playbook that didn’t exist before we wrote it.
We regularly field queries from conservation projects across continents. How did you secure community buy-in? What does your device network look like? How do you manage biosecurity? These are questions from people trying to replicate our work in their cities.
In October 2025, we represented Wellington at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi – the largest gathering of conservation professionals in the world, with over 10,000 attendees from 140 countries. We showcased Wellington’s model as proof that urban communities can reverse biodiversity decline at scale. Our approach – people centred, nature-centred, scalable – is inspiring cities worldwide.
International media coverage continues to amplify our story. Because what’s happening here matters beyond Wellington. If we can do this in a working capital city of 212,000 people, other cities can too.
This map shows some of the places our work and knowledge is shared. We work with similar projects and share our story with global audiences through media coverage.
Navigating change, maintaining momentum
In a year of significant transition – with the disestablishment of Predator Free 2050 Ltd and its integration into Department of Conservation (DOC) – we’ve worked closely with other predator free projects and the Department to ensure Wellington’s pioneering work remains recognised and supported. We have lobbied for Wellington to be acknowledged as the urban exemplar in the national strategy, ensuring our work is understood, prioritised, and supported for the long term.
This kind of advocacy work isn’t glamorous, but it’s essential leadership. It ensures that the systems supporting predator free work are resilient, that our work isn’t isolated or vulnerable, and that what we’re proving here can scale beyond Wellington. Even as structures around us shifted, we maintained momentum, stayed visible, and continued demonstrating what’s possible when communities lead.
As world-first pioneers, we carry a particular responsibility. What we’re demonstrating matters beyond Wellington. In a world searching for hope, we’re showing that nature and cities can thrive together – and we’re doing it in ways that put people first, embrace equity, and prove that grassroots action at scale can deliver extraordinary results. That’s the kind of leadership that changes what people believe is possible.
This is just the beginning
