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New Zealand Resource Pack

The land of the long white cloud has a reputation of being clean, green and beautiful. New Zealand may not be initially thought of as a volunteer destination, but volunteers are needed to help justify New Zealand's clean, green and beautiful claim. New Zealand's plants and animals have evolved during 80 million years of isolation from the rest of the world. Scientists have described New Zealand as the closest one can get to studying life on another planet. This country was one of the last places on earth to be settled by humans. When humans eventually arrived around 1000 years ago, the impact on indigenous species was profound. The threats to New Zealand's unique biodiversity that have been introduced by humans require human control. This means the responsibility for its continued existence lies with people.

The program is located in one of the most picturesque cities in the world. Volunteers work to preserve, monitor, and re-establish our natural environment in and around the Wellington region, and encounter the challenges of 'hands on' conservation and environmental restoration work in our native forests, wildlife reserves, rugged coastlines, and offshore islands.

The aim of the New Zealand program is twofold; first we provide much needed volunteer assistance to conservation groups and conservation projects within New Zealand. In return we offer our volunteers a unique and diverse experience that will expose them to many aspects of NZ conservation; this in turn will hopefully give our volunteers a greater understanding of conservation as a whole.

Volunteers form an integral part of our habitat restoration, wildlife monitoring and environmental/conservation research projects. The volunteer team is headquartered near to Wellington and our program area focuses within the Wellington region, but several of our projects work is in other regions of the North Island. The work that you will be involved with is typically a combination of direct habitat restoration (e.g. predator control, tree planting, invasive weed removal) and environmental/conservation research such as bird monitoring, marine mammal monitoring and ecological projects.

New Zealand's capital city, Wellington, is perched on the shores of a deep natural harbour surrounded by wooded hills. The Wellington region encompasses diverse landforms, indigenous plants and wildlife, and an extensive and varied coastline. Wellington is a centre for threatened species management and has a number of captive breeding facilities working with some of our most rare bird, reptile, and insect species.

"I have left NZ feeling like I've really made a difference somehow, however small that difference may have been, and I can now recognize the importance of following what you believe in and acting upon it."

Easy Facts

For the New Zealand Easy Facts sheet, click here.

Articles

Will Work For Scenery: http://www.volunteer.org.nz/media/articles/kennett.php.

Further Reading

Alien Possums Gobbling New Zealand Forests, Birds, Sean Markey, National Geographic, April 26th, 2006: With its bushy tail, tall ears, and pink nose, Australia's brush-tailed possum could be the poster child for cute critters. But here in New Zealand-where millions of the animals eat native plants, trees, and birds by the bushel-the marsupials are possums non grata.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/04/0425_060425_possum.html

New Zealand a Noah's Ark for Conserving Bizarre Birds, Karin Muller, National Geographic News, September 21st, 2004: When New Zealand split away from the super continent Gondwana some 80 million years ago, its flora and fauna were left to develop in isolation.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/09/0921_040921_newzealand_birds.html

Country Profile

For New Zealand's country profile, click here.

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