Twenty community conservation groups will share $9.2 million from the Department of Conservation Community Fund, in a round where the odds of getting money were more than twice as good as they were last year.
Conservation Minister Tama Potaka announced the grants on 19 August. The money goes to work on public and private land from Whangārei to the Otago Peninsula and out to the Chatham Islands, and projects can run for up to three years.
The round drew 121 applications seeking more than $69 million, so about one application in six was successful. That is a very different picture from the last round. When DOC handed out the same $9.2 million in April 2025 it was working through 291 applications asking for more than $141 million, which the department described at the time as the largest amount ever sought through the fund. Only one application in 14 got anything.
In other words, the amount of money on the table has not moved, but the queue in front of it has halved. Applications fell 58 percent and the total sought fell 51 percent in the space of 16 months, dropping below even the $77 million sought in the 2023 round. DOC said in February that the 2026 round would give priority to projects protecting species and ecosystems carrying the most serious threat classifications, and applicants appear to have taken that filter seriously before filling in a form.
The average grant this time is $460,000, barely changed from the $450,000 average in the previous round. The 20 grants published on DOC’s list of successful applications add up to exactly $9.2 million.
There is a catch worth understanding for any group that missed out. The fund has an annual appropriation of $4.6 million, and DOC said when applications opened that the 2026 round was doubled because it includes the 2026/27 appropriation. The $9.2 million announced last week is therefore two years of money spent in one go, not an increase. The fund has also never run every year. DOC’s own records show rounds in 2014, 2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18, 2019, 2020, 2023, 2025 and 2026, with nothing in 2021 or 2022 because the focus then was on Covid recovery and Jobs for Nature.
The single biggest grant, $1,169,900, goes to the Chatham Islands Landscape Restoration Trust for a feral cat knockdown on Pitt Island under the Predator Free Chathams banner. A second Chathams project, run by the Chatham Islands Farmers Association, gets $543,240 for the first phase of feral pig control on the main island and Pitt Island. Between them the two island projects take $1.71 million, or nearly 19 percent of the national pot, for a place with a few hundred residents.
Three of the next largest awards go to fenced or landscape scale projects on the mainland. Te Tau Ihu Environmental Trust receives $791,250 for Pest Free Onetahua at Farewell Spit, a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar convention. Banks Peninsula Conservation Trust gets $642,445 to remove feral hoofed animals from Banks Peninsula, work its project title links to protecting the Banks Peninsula fork fern. Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust receives $606,585 for the sanctuary mountain near Cambridge, and East Taranaki Environment Trust $603,760 for its north-east Taranaki kōkako landscape project.
Two grants go to the same bird in the same part of the country. The Wildlife Hospital Trust in Dunedin receives $570,000 for veterinary care for the yellow-eyed penguin, and the Otago Peninsula Eco Restoration Alliance receives $534,600 for its yellow-eyed penguin programme, a combined $1.1 million aimed at a species whose mainland population has been in long decline.
At the other end of the scale the Kea Conservation Trust picked up $150,000 to amplify community kea conservation work, and the Arthur’s Pass Wildlife Trust $160,000 for predator control in the alpine park. Smaller North Island grants include $227,120 for Pukenui Forest Trust in Whangārei, aimed at native bats, $265,885 for Weed Action Native Habitat Restoration Trust at Manaia Scenic Reserve, $197,685 for Ngā Manu Nature Reserve at Waikanae to breed endangered species, and $315,875 for Te Mana o Tauhara to restore geothermal ground near Taupō.
Potaka said the projects “cover a range of New Zealand’s threatened ecosystems and species, from internationally recognised wetlands and geothermal areas to Northland horopito and Whitaker’s skink”. Horopito is a peppery native shrub and the Northland species is very rare. Whitaker’s skink is a threatened lizard that survives at only a handful of sites.
“Communities around the country are rolling up their sleeves to protect the places and species that make New Zealand unique, combining practical conservation actions with local knowledge, community effort, and strong partnerships with Iwi,” Potaka said. “These groups play a vital role in New Zealand’s conservation efforts, and this investment will help turn their commitment into action.”
The grants are not the whole cost of the work. DOC expects the groups and their partners to put in about $12 million more in co-funding, donations and in kind support such as volunteer hours, which means the Crown contribution is closer to two fifths of what will actually be spent on the ground. Sia Aston, DOC’s deputy director-general for public affairs and partnerships, put the case for that model plainly when the round opened, saying community groups “play a pivotal role in protecting our native species and their habitats, and we know they bring a lot to table”.
Since it started in 2014 the DOC Community Fund has awarded roughly $50 million to more than 750 community conservation projects. This round takes that running total to roughly $59 million, and with the 2026/27 money already committed, the 101 applications that missed out will be waiting a while for the next chance.
Is your local conservation group on the list, or did it miss out this round? Tell us what is happening in your patch in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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