Biodiversity

Site rehabilitation and restoration

_{* Independent assurance has been undertaken for the Torepatutahi Wetland restoration work, and Te Kiri o Hine Ka protection work. Other restoration and protection work has not been assured.}

_{We work with a variety of stakeholders to help identify habitats to protect and restore and we engage an Ecologist to undertake an assessment to develop a restoration plan for the particular area, including the types of management techniques necessary to address risks to biodiversity at each habitat.}

Threatened species list

• IUCN Red list

• New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS)

Mitigating actions

Human activity is causing a decline of biodiversity in Aotearoa New Zealand, through climate change, introduced invasive species, land / sea use change, direct exploitation, and pollution. Contact takes a range of mitigating actions to reduce our impacts on biodiversity. Our efforts are informed by a mitigation hierarchy (Avoid, Minimise, Restore, Offset, Compensate). For example:

• We regenerate and restore local biodiversity in our areas of operation. Expert environmental effects assessments are undertaken for all new sites that inform the development of operational Biodiversity Management Plans to avoid, reduce, mitigate or restore any impacted biodiversity at all sites. The plans set out physical work priorities for steps like exclusion fencing, native tree planting, pest plant & animal control and establishing riparian margins. Contact and DOC have been working with landowners and volunteers at multiple sites in the lower Clutha Mata-au catchment over a number of years to enhance freshwater fish habitat. As well as benefiting native fish, the fencing and riparian planting provide a buffer to waterways from stock damage, run-off, bank erosion and sedimentation.
• We engage independent ecologists and consult with tangata whenua to advise on and deliver ecological restoration plans for critical biodiversity and unique ecosystems. This includes native tuna (eel) and kanakana (lamprey) on the Clutha Mata-Au and geothermal vegetation across the three geothermal fields we operate on. The plans identify critical biodiversity issues and provide a blueprint for prioritising and restoring the areas, normally over several years.
• We seek as a priority to avoid impacts on biodiversity where practicable, a consideration through the Resource Management Act process. For example, reconfiguration and refinement of the Southland Wind Farm footprint has been an iterative process undertaken by Contact in collaboration with expert ecologists to minimise the effects on habitat loss associated with vegetation removal. This exercise has been undertaken to avoid, where practicable, impacts on high and very high value habitats and associated species, including the use of pre-existing roads to the greatest extent possible. 
• Where we cannot fully avoid impacts on biodiversity, we reduce our impact on local flora and fauna, for example through our native fish trap and transfer programmes around our hydro power stations, and the monitoring and mitigation for losses of the rare geothermal vegetation around our geothermal operations. We will also continue to plant more than 20,000 indigenous plants annually to help restore and enhance biodiversity.
• We transform areas of exotic forest (once harvested) with indigenous species on land we own. We recently harvested 7 hectares of exotic forest and replanted the area in a mixture of indigenous species, planting over 15,000 plants. We also return and/or transform pasture into indigenous forest on our land where it is not sustainable for pastoral agriculture, to enhance biodiversity corridors throughout our areas of operation. For example, the Stratford Riparian Management Plan directed by the Taranaki Regional Council identifies areas that are not suitable for pastoral use and return these areas into indigenous vegetation.