New Zealand Jobs for Nature — Mahi mō te Taiao

Jobs for Nature (Mahi mō te Taiao) was New Zealand's NZD 1.185 billion pandemic economic-recovery conservation programme, administered from 2020 to 2025 across five government agencies led by the Department of Conservation (DOC), which managed 225 projects nationwide with NZD 485.3 million, partnering with Māori and community organisations.

The programme aimed to create employment in rural and Māori communities hit hardest by COVID-19 economic disruption, while tackling two of New Zealand's most severe ecological threats: wilding conifers (estimated at a NZD 4.6 billion threat to farmland, waterways and native ecosystems) and introduced mammalian predators such as rats, stoats and possums.

Workers were employed in ground-based wilding-pine felling and herbicide treatment, predator trapping, wetland restoration and native planting, with a priority on community and iwi involvement.

By programme completion in 2025, Jobs for Nature had brought 19,000 km² of land under wilding-pine control and 24,000 km² under pest-animal control, planted 9.7 million native plants, and created or sustained approximately 11,000 jobs, many in rural and Māori communities.

The programme ended in 2025 as planned, and DOC published a formal Transition Strategy documenting institutional lessons. Wilding-conifer management now continues under the ongoing National Wilding Conifer Control Programme (NWCCP), administered by MPI, providing continuity beyond the emergency-funding period.