Bring Back the Bounty – $10 Per Possum

Ban 1080 Party – Policy – 18/09/2017

The Ban 1080 Party is excited to announce its Bring Back the Bounty policy. “We are committed to ensuring our environment is managed in a way that is sustainable, safe and non-toxic – safe for our wildlife and our communities” said candidate for Coromandel, and Co-leader Clyde Graf. The Party was formed by Co-leader Bill Wallace in 2014, and has continued to draw strong support since its inception.

Currently around 2000 tons of 1080 poison bait is aerially spread across New Zealand forests and dropped directly into waterways, every year. “The Bring Back the Bounty initiative will result in healthy forests, targeted and humane wild animal control, and happier, richer communities. It’s a win-win-win” says the party’s West Coast-Tasman candidate Peter Salter.

The project will engage communities in wild animal management and pay out on results, not poison use. A reward of $10 per possum tail, and $25 per stoat/ferret/weasel tail will be paid. It is expected that two groups of expertise will emerge from the program - Possum hunters, and stoat-ferret hunters.

Trappers will be able to use the possums as they wish, so in many cases, increase their income and at the same time supply product for the lucrative possum industry. A premium will be paid for mustelids because there are fewer of them. The National Government has earmarked $40 million for community pest control projects. This block of money is likely to be directed into existing groups and organisations, and most likely into those using persistent poisons like 1080 and brodifacoum - both of which are produced by the government-owned company Orillion (www.orillion.com). The Ban 1080 Party would redirected this money toward funding the first year of the Bring Back the Bounty project, and to employ targeted and more humane wild animal management.

Bounties have been effective in the past, with birds like Huia trapped to extinction, and Kea, reduced by tens of thousands. In fact the programs were so effective they were only required to run for a few years. Bounties also work for precious metals like gold. A bounty of $1500 per ounce has the flow-on effect of motivating men to move mountains to obtain it.

Research shows that aerially spreading 1080 poison causes rat plagues, and instability within ecosystems. It’s been proven over and over again. Research also shows that 1080 poison kills rats (the main diet of stoats and ferrets) in the shortterm, but often fails to reduce stoat and ferret populations and causes them to switch prey to birds, and often to kiwi. This is demonstrated in Mt Bruce https://youtu.be/yGTVaTATbOg and in the Tongariro Kiwi Sanctuary results https://youtu.be/1gR674m7a00 . On-going aerial 1080 poison drops have resulted in kiwi now being extinct in the Pureora Forest Park, where up until 25 years ago, and when the aerial drops began, kiwi enjoyed living in the perfectlysuited podocarp forest. The Bring Back the Bounty program will result in rats being a bi-kill of possum and mustelid trapping. Another win-win.

Clutha-Southland candidate Brian Adams says that “as the targeted species become fewer, the bounties will be increased accordingly. This will create a goldrush effect. For example, a stoat could become more valuable than gold – ounce for ounce – and before long they will be rarer than kiwi in a poisoned drop zone.”

Rural communities all around New Zealand are opposed to the aerial 1080 poison drops, and those same communities are often struggling for sources of income. Currently over 100 million dollars is spent by Government agencies annually on possum control, much of it involving spreading persistent poisons like 1080 and brodifacoum. The Government project Predator Free 2050 will result in our forests and waterways being saturated with poisons, and inevitably result in more extinctions of our native species including omnivores like kiwi, kea, morepork and weka. Insectivorous birds are also at risk.

The Bring Back the Bounty project will eliminate the on-going poisoning of our wildlife and waterways, and mean New Zealand can once again, with integrity, call its wilderness areas clean, green, and 100% pure. A vote for the Ban 1080 Party is a vote for healthy forests and happy communities.

Authorised by Mary Molloy, 68 La Fontaine Rd, Hari Hari. Ends.

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