About the Trust

Project Kiwi Trust was the first community based project in New Zealand to protect kiwi and is a flagship for kiwi conservation nation wide. Lance Dew established the Kuaotunu Kiwi Sanctuary in 1996 with a handful of keen locals and landowners with the intent of controlling predators through trapping, aiming for a survival rate of 20% for kiwi chicks - this percentage of survival is required to ensure the kiwi population is maintained. Initially an incorporated society, it became formally registered as Project Kiwi Trust in 2002.

Project Kiwi Trust has strived to protect and enhance the kiwi population on the Kuoatunu Peninsula for 16 years. During this time, different strategies of predator control as well as Operation Nest Egg have been employed to achieve this. Much of what we know about the trapping of predators and monitoring of kiwi has been developed and refined by Project Kiwi Trust including predator and kiwi-dog work, trapping methods and kiwi tracking as well as the first fenced, predator-proof kiwi crèche.

Meet the Trust