We wish to have Te Wāhipounamu, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, listed as a World Heritage Site in Danger. 

An aerial baiting campaign is scheduled to start over Te Wāhipounamu in August 2016. This is home to many vulnerable species, including the world’s only alpine parrot, the endangered kea.

Baits laced with 1080 (sodium monofluouroacetate) are to be broadcast from helicopters across the Dart, Routeburn and Caples valleys in Te Wāhipounamu. The targets are rats, mice and stoats, in the New Zealand Government's "Predator Free NZ" program.

Kea are omnivores, and many have been killed in previous baiting campaigns. Until 1970, kea were the targets of these campaigns directly. An estimated 150,000 kea were killed (to protect sheep) between 1868 and 1970 with strychnine poison, guns and bounty schemes. Now it is estimated that as few as 1000 kea remain. To employ poison again to try and save them is a deeply flawed environmental intervention.

New Zealand uses 80-90% of the world's supply of 1080 poison, a substance banned in most countries. The broad spectrum poison remains active for months in cold environments – temperatures less than 7ºC  (44.6ºF). The Government claims 1080 is biodegradable and inactive within a couple of days. This is incorrect, and the consequences are serious for Te Wāhipounamu and the kea.

Intervention is urgently required from UNESCO and the international scientific community in this matter.