New Zealand Species Recovery Groups and their role in evidence‐based conservation

Abstract

New Zealand (NZ) is recognized globally as an important biodiversity hotspot. The Government is committed to protecting the nation’s unique flora and fauna via its Department of Conservation (DOC). An important component of threatened species management has been the creation of species recovery groups and associated recovery plans. Recovery plans aim to summarize the current state of knowledge for a given species and identify a range of shortand long-term management goals which the group works towards. Recovery groups are made up of species experts and are charged with providing advice on the management and recovery of the species. Membership of recovery groups normally includes scientists. In the past, professional scientists in recovery groups were from within DOC, but there is now a growing representation of scientists from academia in some groups (Table 1). In effect, this makes the recovery groups an ideal conduit for evidence-based conservation, although their role as such has never been evaluated, nor was it their original purpose. We know that evidencebased conservation is important (Sutherland et al. 2004), but it requires both scientists willing to work on relevant applied questions and managers to work with these scientists to identify relevant questions and to ensure appropriate implementation of research findings. However, DOC employees have recently expressed mixed views on the success of managing threatened species using recovery groups and recovery plans (SeabrookDavison, Ji & Brunton 2010). In part, this may be because the role of the recovery group has never been well defined. There are a range of limitations using the current recovery group approach to threatened species management in NZ. These are likely to be common issues globally. First, only a small number of recognized threatened species actually have a dedicated recovery group and plan (for example, recovery plans cover 27 bird taxa and there are only 12 active recovery groups, whereas 170 taxa are considered threatened or at risk, Miskelly et al. 2008). Further, funding for implementing these plans is currently dependent on priorities of individual DOC administrative regions and is not directed by recovery groups whose primary role is advisory. Funding tends to be limited and directed at the highest priority actions of DOC administrative regions, and so implementation of plans nationally can be piecemeal. A recent evaluation of opinions of DOC staff revealed that many were frustrated by a lack of coordinated effort (nationally) for threatened species management, even with a recovery group in place, and hence had a mixed view on the utility of recovery groups (Seabrook-Davison, Ji & Brunton 2010). This is of concern because recovery groups should be improving species conservation status and act as powerful tools for evidence-based conservation. A breakdown in the utility of recovery groups, as perceived by DOC staff, may reflect the current decreasing capacity and resources in DOC combined with a failure to increase the contribution from other sectors (science and community). For example, current bird recovery groups are largely small, with an overwhelming membership from DOC (40–82% proportional makeup of groups; Table 1). Few bird recovery groups include a reasonable number of academic researchers (Table 1). Department of Conservation has recognized its decreasing capacity (related to funding cuts) and is implementing three major changes in its approach to conservation. The first is to combine species-focused recovery groups into broader associations of ecosystem groups or multispecies groups (yet to be defined). The idea is to spread resources further, be more efficient, and to provide a national overview across all threatened and at risk taxa. The second is to use optimization tools (Joseph et al. 2008) to allocate conservation work among species at a national level. Third is the encouragement of greater community *Correspondence author. E-mail: john.ewen@ioz.ac.uk