About the Whakatipu Wildlife Trust

The Whakatipu Wildlife Trust (WWT) was formed in 2017 at the request of both the Department of Conservation and the Queenstown Lakes District Council to serve as an umbrella organisation to connect, grow, and support the region’s predator-free efforts.

We coordinate the efforts of over 70 trapping groups who are engaged in activities to help make the Queenstown Lakes District predator-free. It is our vision to encourage growth, to support the efforts of new groups and to help to educate the wider community on how we can all play a part in helping our native wildlife to flourish. 

Local communities and volunteer groups have taken up the responsibility to care for the future and ensure that there will still be wildlife and an outstanding natural habitat for future generations. Through this convergence of active local community groups, local government, and DOC, the Whakatipu Wildlife Trust was born. 

The WWT serves as both a unified entity for the community trapping groups and also participates in larger wide-scale work with neighbouring wildlife trusts, the Department of Conservation, Forest and Bird, and other conservation partners who are dedicated to making the Queenstown Lakes District Predator-Free.

“Our vision is to create and maintain a predator free environment throughout the greater Lake Whakatipu area to enable our birds and other native wildlife to flourish.”

To achieve our vision, we:

1) Support and coordinate the work of current community volunteer groups engaged in predator-free work in the Queenstown Lakes District. 

2) Encourage the development of new community volunteer groups by engaging in capacity building, direct support, education, fundraising, networking and information exchange. 

3) Aid in the strategic development of a predator-free strategy for the entire Queenstown Lakes District.

Why Whakatipu?

The Whakatipu Wildlife Trust have adopted the name ‘Whakatipu’ in respect of the te reo Māori name for Lake Wakatipu. Local iwi Ngāi Tahu refer to Lake Wakatipu as Whakatipu-wai-Māori. Read more here.


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