The 12,000-hectare Okarito Kiwi Sanctuary has been funded by the New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy funding package, and is managed as part of Bank of New Zealand Kiwi Recovery. The sanctuary covers the southern portions of Okarito Forest in Westland National Park, near the coastal village of Okarito.

The stoat trapping operation in this sanctuary is thought to be the largest in the world. It uses 1500 tunnels each containing one or two traps laid in a pattern across 10,000 hectares of core kiwi habitat, and includes a 2 kilometre-wide buffer on three sides.

The Kiwi Recovery Programme’s Operation Nest Egg has contributed 37 new kiwi to the sanctuary, increasing the population by approximately 25 per cent over the last four years. Rowi from Operation Nest Egg are now forming part of the breeding population.

Thirty per cent of chicks that hatched survived to 1 kg in weight in the 2001/02 breeding season. At this weight, kiwi are expected to be able to fend off stoats, their main threat.

While the chick survival rate is encouraging, only 40 per cent of kiwi pairs attempt to breed at Okarito. For the population to maintain itself with this sort of productivity, at least 66% of pairs would have to hatch young.