The Department of Conservation and tourism operator RealNZ have formalised a three-year National Programme Partnership, cementing a relationship that has already put more than $300,000 towards returning kiwi pukupuku to Fiordland.

The agreement, announced on 23 October, builds on decades of conservation spending and hands-on environmental work by the Queenstown and Te Anau-based company.

Director-General Peter Chrisp said partnerships were essential to lasting outcomes for nature. "DOC cannot do the job of conservation on its own," he said.

RealNZ chief executive Dave Beeche said conservation sat at the centre of the company's purpose. "We believe people protect what they value," he said.

A decade on Cooper Island

The partnership's most visible project is in Tamatea/Dusky Sound, where RealNZ has run predator control on Ao-ata-te-pō/Cooper Island for about a decade under a community agreement with DOC. That trapping work will continue under the new arrangement.

Since 2015 the company has chosen a priority conservation project each year and raised money for it through its annual Night for Nature fundraising dinner and a scheme that puts 1 per cent of online booking revenue towards conservation. This year the focus was the return of kiwi pukupuku, or little spotted kiwi, from Kapiti Island to Cooper Island, a project that has now attracted more than $300,000.

In May, RealNZ announced DOC had approved the translocation, which is planned for 2028. Cooper Island sits close enough to the mainland for predators to swim across, so it can never be declared predator-free. Instead the birds will live on an island where predators are actively suppressed rather than eliminated, which the company describes as a new frontier, in contrast to fenced sanctuaries and predator-free offshore islands.

Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu and papatipu rūnanga have been part of the conversations about the move, and RealNZ says it will work with DOC and iwi on the translocation itself.

DOC's southern South Island regional director, Aaron Fleming, said RealNZ had a strong reputation as a regional conservation leader, built on long-term predator control and species recovery work across the southern South Island.

What the deal does not do

DOC has been careful to separate the partnership from its regulatory role. The department says the arrangement focuses on shared conservation outcomes and has no bearing on decisions about concessions, approvals or other authorisations on public conservation land, the permits tourism operators such as RealNZ need to run their businesses in national parks.

Under the agreement, RealNZ, DOC, iwi and other stakeholders will together choose a conservation focus for each of the coming years. No dollar value has been put on the partnership itself.