Trapping work to continue with $223,000 funding injection

A group fighting to protect and nurture the landscapes of the Southern Lakes has been given a financial boost in the latest round of funding divvied up by the Central Lakes Trust.

The Southern Lakes Sanctuary Trust will have an extra $223,425 to put towards its operational costs as it works with volunteers and landowners on predator control across the district.

The money comes at a pivotal time for the group, which launched off the back of the central government's Jobs for Nature initiative in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a statement this morning, Paul Kavanagh, the project director of the Southern Lakes Sanctuary Trust, say the funding will "enable us to maintain the gains that we have achieved in our project to date and to greatly increase our conservation efforts to protect our native species across our district”.

The trust's work spans 163,000 hectares, and it aims to expand this by a further 20,000-odd hectares over the next two years.

It works to coordinate and amplify the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and more than 100 community and landowner groups already engaged in predator control across the region, under the ethos that small, isolated populations of rare species are at greater risk of tumbling like dominos, while larger protected areas give threatened species a greater fighting chance.

Since 2022, it has facilitated the removal of more than 35,500 predators, contributing significantly to the recovery of native species and habitat restoration.

The grant is part of a total $1.3 million handed over to charitable organisations within the Central Lakes region, and announced by the Central Lakes Trust today.

The latest allocation brings the total awarded for the 2023 to 2024 financial year to close to $8 million.

Other beneficiaries include a riverside park project in Alexandra, which has received $250,000, the Whakatipu Rowing Club, which has received $123,855 towards its clubhouse redevelopment, and Wānaka's Food for Love, which has received $123,855 towards its operational costs for the year ahead.

Main image (Facebook/Southern Lakes Sanctuary)