New Zealand prides itself on its natural wonders, but keeping them clean and green depends on turning curious visitors from around the world into advocates for conservation.
Once a year, Aotearoa/New Zealand comes to a halt. A debate rages around dinner tables the country over, workplace watercooler chats take a serious turn and an uncharacteristically fiery competitive spirit takes hold among Kiwis.
The people are flocking to vote for their favourite bird.
Intrepid Foundation partner Forest & Bird’s annual Bird of the Year competition has captured hearts, imaginations and headlines the world over with its playful approach to engaging the public with New Zealand’s beloved native birds and raising awareness of the threats they face.
It’s caught so much attention that a year without tongue-in-cheek allegations of voter fraud and international interference was described by The Guardian as ‘unusually sedate’. But while it might be Forest & Bird’s most well-known campaign, there’s a whole lot more to this Intrepid Foundation partner than their name suggests.
More than forests and birds
To use its formal name, the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand is the country’s largest independent conservation organisation. But as the organisation’s corporate fundraiser Alex Moyes puts it, ‘we do a lot more than forests and birds.’
The organisation has been speaking, standing and acting for New Zealand’s wildlife and wild places for more than 100 years, and their work involves anything that protects and restores nature, explains Alex. ‘We represent species and beautiful natural areas that don’t have their own voice, and make sure they’re heard at all levels of government as well as doing on-the-ground conservation work.’
Forest & Bird manages 1482 hectares of reserves and has 140 active projects, to which 14,000 volunteers gave more than 44,500 hours of their time in 2023. These projects span dune lake ecosystems in New Zealand’s Far North to penguin reserves in the deep south, planting along fresh waterways and protecting coastal nesting sites.
‘Our history has been volunteer power, and that’s still the case today,’ says Alex. ‘It takes a real labour of love to work in conservation.’
The election that stops a nation
Along with trapping pests, weeding, regenerating land and monitoring species, those same volunteers are also behind the soaring success of the Bird of the Year competition – a grassroots campaign first started in 2005.
‘The real driving force behind it is the campaign managers,’ says Alex. Eager individuals, groups and organisations sign up each year to advocate for their bird of choice, and their creative efforts reliably capture the attention of the wider voting public.
‘It’s become bigger than us now too. Which is amazing, because you can’t make something like that up. You can’t force it – it has to develop over time.’
In 2024, the hoiho (yellow-eyed penguin) – having been endorsed by Dr Jane Goodall – won its second title, just pipping the karure (black robin) and fellow two-time champ, the kākāpō.
But that doesn’t compare to the craziness of 2023 when comedian John Oliver approached Forest & Bird about running a campaign for the pūteketeke. While most campaign managers stick to setting up social media accounts for their bird of choice, Oliver put up billboards in London, Paris, Tokyo and Mumbai, made TV appearances in a bird costume and flew a banner over Brazil’s iconic Ipanema Beach.
Anyone around the globe can vote in the competition, and they do – in droves. Thanks to Oliver’s campaigning, the 2023 competition drew more than 350,000 votes from 195 countries. Alex isn’t surprised.
‘Birds resonate so much because people often have memories of them as children or a connection to a place, and place[s] and bird species go together,’ she says.
‘New Zealand is very famous for its birds because many of them are found nowhere else in the world. So it’s important that we protect them.’
It’s not all flora and fauna, and it’s not all fun and games
While the bird memes have their moments, the competition has a serious purpose, too: getting the conservation message in front of the wider public. You’ll often find Forest & Bird in the courtroom or advocating in New Zealand’s halls of power, keeping companies and politicians honest about the impact of their work and policies on the country’s ecosystems.
Even then, Forest & Bird doesn’t blame you for thinking they have it easy. In 2024, Tourism New Zealand celebrated the 25th year of its ‘100% Pure New Zealand’ campaign – and if the country has indeed been that pure for that long, what is there left for Forest & Bird to do?
‘Actually, it’s not a great story when you look at some of the statistics around biodiversity loss and climate change,’ says Alex.
According to figures released in 2023, more than 75 per cent of New Zealand’s indigenous reptile, bird, bat and freshwater fish species groups are threatened with extinction or are at risk of becoming threatened. A 2024 report advised that New Zealand’s rivers ‘continue to show widespread ecological health concerns.’ And all the while, politicians are saying that ‘if there is a mining opportunity and it’s impeded by a blind frog, goodbye, Freddy.’
‘We’re very realistic about the state of things. That’s why we exist, you know? We don’t want to be negative about it, but we want to be realistic,’ says Alex.
‘I think we just want to move people a bit further towards the understanding [that] each person can do something, however small or big it is, to make a change.’
The first shoots of an international effort
That down-to-earth approach helps to explain why Forest & Bird have partnered with The Intrepid Foundation.
At first glance, travel and conservation have a complicated relationship. For most people, it takes a few emission-heavy flights to reach New Zealand, but on the other hand, nothing generates the buy-in to conserve our natural spaces like experiencing them firsthand.
‘So, then, what?’ asks Alex. ‘How do we work with what we’ve got to inspire people to take action for the environment, to be more conscious? How do we understand better how the tourism industry works, and how do we work in that space to make improvements and be a force for good as well?’
Enter The Intrepid Foundation. In addition to the help that donations provide, there’s an alignment between Forest & Bird’s conservation mission and curious Intrepid travellers looking to give back to the places they visit.
Intrepid travellers learn about Forest & Bird’s work on trips in New Zealand and how they can support it. One of those travellers, Laurel, donated NZ$50 while still on her trip, describing how she was ‘enjoying a great trip in New Zealand right now and want[ed] to support beautiful nature and communities.’
That shared appreciation for conservation is, well, natural, according to Alex.
‘It symbolises how much bigger nature is than all of us,’ she explains. ‘We’re all part of the same ecosystem of Earth. If you think about the environment and the action that we want to take to protect and restore it – it’s going to take everyone.’
Forest & Bird hasn’t set out to garner that kind of international attention – whether through its Bird of the Year competition or travellers visiting from overseas. ‘But we’re really embracing the fact that we do have that connection because nature isn’t separate from us – we are part of it,’ Alex says.
Do you hear that?
By working to understand and safeguard New Zealand’s natural wonders, travellers are rewarded with more than just world-renowned views. Naturally, those spaces provide a sense of safety in return.
‘Birds are a helpful indication of the health of our ecosystem,’ Alex says. ‘When you hear birdsong, [it denotes] safety. [It sends] a message to your nervous system that you’re OK, because birds don’t sing if they’re not safe.’
The Bird of the Year competition might encourage us to play a game of favourites, but when thousands of people come together in support of conservation, ultimately, everyone wins.
Learn more about Forest & Bird and find your own responsible Intrepid trip in New Zealand.
