• Searching for
    powerful solutions
    to some big problems

    Honeybee on clover.

    Honeybee on clover.

  • How do we make
    Predator-Free New Zealand
    by 2050 a reality?

  • How do we
    reconnect people
    with their environments?

    Visiting Zealandia.

    Photo: Zealandia

  • How can science help?

    Monitoring apple orchards. Image © Plant & Food Research

    Monitoring apple orchards. Image © Plant & Food Research

  • What questions
    are we addressing?

    Kereru at Zealandia. Credit - Brendan Doran

    Kereru at Zealandia. Credit - Brendan Doran

  • What can we do together?

    Pest control monitoring

    Pest control monitoring. Photo: Zealandia

About New Zealand's Biological Heritage National Science Challenge

Our National Science Challenge aims to enhance and restore New Zealand’s land-based and freshwater ecosystems – on the conservation estate or in private ownership – by deepening our understanding of which species we have, and seeking science-based solutions to dealing with threats: pest animals and insects, weeds, pathogens, and climate change. We consolidate and focus research happening in these areas across New Zealand.

The Programmes Learn more

We aim to give biodiversity and biosecurity decision makers up to date, sufficiently accurate, information of what we’ve got, where, including introduced species...

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New Zealand is highly vulnerable to invasive pests, weeds and diseases. Recently, the PSA bacterium decimated our kiwifruit production, costing growers and the country millions...

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The work of Programmes 1 and 2 feeds into this programme, which focuses on whole ecosystems – preventing irreversible loss and identifying the critical tipping points that affect them...

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