QUEEN’S SERVICE MEDAL (QSM) AWARDED TO KNIGHTSBRIDGE UNIVERSITY GRADUATE IN NEW ZEALAND

Dr Neil Hayes of Carterton, New Zealand, who was awarded a Knightsbridge University PhD in Environmental Management in 2004, was honoured in the New Zealand 2005 New Year Honours with the Queen’s Service Medal (QSM) for Community Service.

The QSM was awarded in recognition of Neil’s thirty-four years of continuous involvement in attempting to save the rare and critically endangered NZ Brown Teal (Anas chlorotis) from extinction.

The PhD was awarded under 'Regulation 10 - Research Degrees by Published Work'. Neil has published extensively and for many years on his work with brown teal in particular and environmental management in general.

The primary title on brown teal, “NATURAL HISTORY, CAPTIVE MANAGEMENT & SURVIVAL OF THE NZ BROWN TEAL”, was published in 2002. In the same year Neil founded the Brown Teal Conservation Trust, a charitable Trust dedicated to saving brown teal from extinction. The Trust has already made a significant impact on brown teal management.

Over the past five years Neil has successfully turned the brown teal recovery programme around, from one of imminent disaster, where the predicted time of extinction of brown teal on the New Zealand mainland was the year 2004, to one of potential success.

Neil can be seen on the front cover of "Open Space", the magazine of the Queen Elizabeth II National Trust, December 2003 issue, in which a piece entitled 'Conservation Hero' is dedicated to him and his work.

Neil’s Investiture took place at Government House in Wellington on the 13th April. Neil says he is honoured and delighted to receive the award and thanks his wife, Sylvia, for her great support and for her long involvement with waterfowl. He also mentioned that he would be attempting to ensure that brown teal receive high exposure as a direct result of the Award.

Brown Teal (Anas chlorotis)

The NZ Brown Teal is found only in New Zealand and is a species which, prior to the arrival of Europeans, was widespread throughout the country, with a population of millions. However, largely through the introduction and spread of predators, the numbers of brown teal in the wild has plummeted to approximately 1,000. The species has many unique features that are not found in any other species of waterfowl. Recent fossil research has determined that brown teal were present in New Zealand over 10,000 years ago and Neil believes that brown teal evolved from the very beginning of life in New Zealand.

Since 1999, when Neil appeared on national TV NZ News outlining the fact that brown teal were in imminent danger of extinction, and what needed to be done to save the species, a major recovery programme has been implemented.

For many years Neil promoted the philosophy that the whole recovery programme was a very simple exercise and all that needed to be done was to eliminate the major reasons for the rapid decline of brown teal towards premature extinction. He believed that because brown teal evolved in an almost totally predator free environment the cause of the decline was almost exclusively down to introduced predators – ferrets, stoats, rats, hedgehogs and feral cats.

Neil has also long promoted the philosophy that with predator control operations, together with a major captive breeding programme, the future for brown teal could be easily secured and the wild population expanded to large numbers.

So, someone eventually listened and today, with substantial Government funding and significant impetus from the NZ Department of Conservation, a number of predator control programmes are now in operation at critically important brown teal sites. Since 2000 the recovery programme has seen a dramatic turnaround, with the numbers of brown teal increasing dramatically in the areas where predator control is in operation.

The release of captive reared brown teal into the wild, with predator control programmes in operation at release sites, is also now proving successful. Neil says that all that is now needed in the programme is a little fine-tuning, plus long-term dedicated input from the Department of Conservation – “SINGLENESS OF PURPOSE” as he puts it!

Besides their long involvement with brown teal Neil and Sylvia have created wetlands and planted nearly 3,000 native trees on their 30-acre farm in the Wairarapa region of New Zealand.

Neil is also CEO of Hayes & Associates Ltd, a prominent import/export company.

In addition to Neil’s brown teal work earning him a QSM and a KU PhD, he is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering Designers (UK), an Associate Fellow of the NZ Institute of Management and a Graduate of the City & Guilds of London Institute.

Neil - and the Brown Teal Conservation Trust - may be contacted at haltd@actrix.co.nz