Year for the Kereru

A project to help the kereru and native forests thrive once more throughout the Wellington region has received new funding from the Nikau Foundation with support from the Willscott Endowment Fund, and WWF-New Zealand in partnership with the Tindall Foundation. “Kereru are beautiful birds, and their recovery is critical to the survival of New Zealand’s unique and special forests,” Marc Slade terrestrial programme manager at WWF-New Zealand said. “Kereru are one of the only surviving mainland native species able to swallow the fruit of some key forest trees, including miro, tawa, rimu and matai.” In the International Year of the Forests, WWF is getting behind this project because Kereru are the champions of New Zealand forest recovery, they’re a keystone species and need looking after,” Slade said.