By Corina Jordan, CE of the NZ Game Animal Council
There’s been growing media and community attention on wild deer and their management lately.
Deer are a valued introduced species. Unfortunately, though, their place in New Zealand has remained contentious. Deer populations have surged between boom-and-bust cycles, and we are yet to land a sustainable approach where they are effectively managed for both values and impacts.
The recent flurry of interest in deer populations has created real urgency around management nationwide. My fear, however, is that we are at real risk of repeating past mistakes. Canada geese – once valued as game birds – lost their game-bird status and became unprotected wildlife in 2011. With no single agency responsible for their management and no national management strategy subsequently developed, populations and impacts have increased, leaving farmers, councils and others grappling with the costs of control.
If we are to learn from the Canada geese example, it is that we need one agency responsible for setting management direction across land tenures. That agency requires the skills and expertise to ensure long-term sustainable management of New Zealand’s wild deer populations at less cost to ratepayers.
The GAC’s view is that the hunting sector – recreational and commercial – remains central to any future management approaches. A fundamental flaw in the current approach is that responsibility is set across a range of different agencies, and the sector remains outside of decision-making.
The GAC has heard from many across the sector recently who are concerned about some of the claims being made about their role, the history, and the future of wild deer management in New Zealand. As the organisation legislated to represent the views of the hunting sector, it is our responsibility to provide some clarity on the facts and make sure the people who are already doing the work are fairly represented.
Who is the hunting sector?
The hunting sector encompasses recreational hunters – the gumboot hunter, the lace up your boots, shoulder your rifle and go for a stalk on the weekend hunter.
It also encompasses professional ground and aerial cullers – those employed by private landowners and government to focus on controlling animal numbers.
It encompasses wild animal recovery operators – who can extract deer as a valuable commodity and provide for New Zealand’s wild venison export market.
It encompasses hunting guides, game estates and other commercial hunting operators – providing once in a lifetime experience that make a major contribution to our tourism industry.
And it encompasses hunting clubs and foundations – people from across the sector, advocating and working in their own time to improve hunting and game animal management in New Zealand.
The hunting sector is all of these communities. Together, they deliver deer management at low/no cost to the taxpayer, across both public and private land. This work far exceeds government control efforts.
Hunters want healthy animals
One claim we are hearing is that hunters want more deer. That is simply wrong, and we will soon be releasing findings from a research project that proves this.
Hunters know that too many deer mean unhealthy animals, poorer habitat and poorer hunting.
Hunters understand that healthy animals depend on healthy environments. When deer numbers exceed what the environment can sustainably support, animal condition declines, vegetation is impacted and the quality of the hunting experience suffers.
By far, the most important reason that New Zealanders go hunting is to enjoy our wild places, for adventure, and to harvest wild meat. They want to be able to stock the freezer, to see strong male animals during the roar, and to be able to share the benefits that hunting provides with others.
And they know that achieving these things requires healthy deer in a healthy environment.
Coordination is critical
Another claim is that recreational hunters have failed to control deer numbers.
To be blunt, recreational hunters, or the hunting sector more broadly, has never been responsible for managing deer.
At present, deer are controlled through the Wild Animal Control Act 1977. Across public conservation land, Department of Conservation undertakes this work, with local/regional councils carrying out work on the land they manage, and then landholders on private property.
The issue is not that recreational hunters have failed to manage deer. The issue is that New Zealand has yet to establish a coordinated system that harnesses the contribution hunters can make as part of a long-term sustainable deer management approach, working alongside landholders and wider community.
It is therefore unfair to say hunters have failed at a job they were never responsible for doing.
Recreational hunters contribute the biggest effort to deer management, harvesting more than 255,000 wild deer each year. They also harvest and control an additional 575,000 other animals (tahr, chamois, wild pigs, goats and wallabies).
There is a significant opportunity to recognise the values, capability and contribution of recreational hunters within future deer management frameworks. Doing so would acknowledge the substantial importance of recreational hunters to New Zealand, while creating a framework that supports and enables the hunting sector to contribute to deer management at scale, where appropriate.
Recognising values
Deer provide food, economic opportunities, recreation, wellbeing, cultural connections and a connection to generations of hunting history.
The total economic output of New Zealand’s recreational hunting industry is around $450 million annually, creating 2,600–3,000 jobs. Additionally, the guided hunting industry brings in an additional $280 million of direct overseas revenue to New Zealand each year.
But when deer are poorly managed, they can also impact the values of public conservation land and primary production.
Management is not one-size-fits-all. There are places where deer numbers are relatively low, or where hunting pressure is effectively maintaining populations at levels that align with local values. And there are areas where deer numbers have risen and are creating impacts beyond what is socially and environmentally acceptable.
Good management starts with understanding what we are trying to achieve in each place.
This is why the Game Animal Council supports the development of a national game animal management strategy that focuses on supporting place-based solutions. Through it we can provide an overarching framework with clear objectives, and guidance on the tools available, to support locally led solutions.
Most importantly, the hunting sector should be represented at every step, to ensure the values of those who will be enlisted, employed or encouraged to contribute are integrated.
Learning from history
History shows us that the challenge of managing deer is not new.
In the 1930s it was recognised that deer were impacting agriculture and conservation values. Legislation was passed that labelled them as pests, with government funded deer control undertaken for the next three decades. Unfortunately, despite significant expenditure, government control struggled to achieve lasting results.
From the 1960s to 1980s, helicopters reduced deer numbers by an estimated 75% by creating a financial value for wild deer through commercial deer recovery, venison export, and the establishment of the deer farming industry.
Rising costs, regulation, aviation, health-and-safety requirements, and declining deer densities significantly reduced the viability of commercial deer recovery. This left recreational hunting as the primary form of population management without adequate coordination and support.
The lesson here is important – relying exclusively on one part of the sector, or one means of control, and a short-term view will not achieve an enduring solution. There is no silver bullet to deer management.
There needs to be one agency responsible for setting management direction across land tenures. One with the skills and expertise to ensure long-term sustainable management of New Zealand’s wild deer populations at less cost to taxpayers.
Looking forward
So where to from here? A century of boom-and-bust has shown that no single approach – government control, recreational hunting or commercial recovery – can deliver sustainable deer management on its own.
What’s missing is leadership that takes an intergenerational view, that can connect policy, expertise and operational delivery across landscapes, with an approach that focuses on maximising the value of deer while minimising their impact.
Good management is about designing a system that allows different parts of the sector to complement each other, rather than compete. It is not about choosing between deer, farmers, hunters or conservation, but finding the right balance in each place, and having leadership that understands the animals, the people, the land and the social and economic realities that shape them.
If we are serious about managing deer properly in New Zealand and breaking the boom-and-bust cycle, we need to put those with the knowledge and capability to manage deer on the ground at the heart of the solution.