The negotiation of a predator free nation

The New Zealand Government has launched a campaign to eliminate possums, rats and stoats from the mainland by the year 2050. For a country which relies heavily on community-led conservation efforts, this represents an unprecedented shift in the scope and scale of predator control.

Through a series of interviews with the people who are defining, negotiating and executing Predator Free 2050, Brendon hopes to gain a better understanding of the social dimensions of environmental restoration in a postcolonial context.

“By understanding predator control as a social and political project, not just a technical or biophysical challenge, we hope to identify opportunities for more inclusive conservation efforts,” Brendon says.

“People around the world are investing vast amounts of time, energy and money into restoring the environment. As these efforts continue to grow, it becomes increasingly important to understand not just how people have damaged the earth, but what happens when we try to fix it.”

Brendon is working with an interdisciplinary group of researchers who span the social and environmental sciences, enabling a broad and open-minded examination of the social processes reshaping contemporary New Zealand landscapes.