The Dunedin City Council is to consider new ways of promoting its biodiversity fund after allocating just over half the $30,000 available in its latest funding round.
The council's hearings committee yesterday approved five grants totalling $16,190 for biodiversity projects around the city.
That was just over half the $30,000 available for distribution in the latest funding round, which has been held every six months since the fund was established in 2007.
The five grants would help support projects including a rat eradication programme at the Hereweka Garden at Hoopers Inlet, on Otago Peninsula ($733.10), and a rare plants garden and wetland revegetation project at the Orokonui Ecosanctuary ($4457.75).
An application for $5000 from STOP (Save the Otago Peninsula), for the restoration of a gecko reserve on Otago Peninsula, was also supported, as was an application by the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society for $5000 for wilding pine eradication work, and $1000 for a pine control operation on Scurr Rd, near Brighton.
The unallocated funding would be carried forward to the next funding round in September, with consideration given to greater advertising for the fund and other initiatives, committee members decided.
