A biosecurity team of 4.7 million

Strategic Direction 1 aims to make all New Zealanders aware of the importance of biosecurity and to get them involved in pest and disease management. Find out more about how this will be achieved.

All New Zealanders playing their part

Biosecurity 2025's first strategic direction aims to make every New Zealander a biosecurity risk manager and to get every business managing their own biosecurity risk. There are 5 goals to achieve this.

Awareness and knowledge

New Zealanders and visitors are aware and knowledgeable about biosecurity.

Taking action

Biosecurity is a reflex action – thinking about and participating in biosecurity has become fundamental to what we do as New Zealanders.

Māori participation

The unique knowledge and perspective of Māori is recognised and Māori/iwi actively participate as kaitiaki (custodians) at all levels of the system.

Collaboration

Partnerships and other collaborations enable us to work more effectively towards a collective vision for biosecurity.

Tools, rules and processes

The tools, rules and processes available make doing the right thing easy for New Zealanders and visitors.

Outcomes – the end results

Each goal has outcomes that break down in more detail what the end results will look like. The outcomes for this strategic direction are on page 11 of the Direction Statement.

Download the Biosecurity 2025 Direction Statement [PDF, 5.1 MB]

Targets for 2025 – to drive action

To make sure we achieve the goals of the Direction Statement, the following targets were set for 2025:

  • 75% of adult New Zealanders understand what biosecurity means and why it is important. 
  • 100,000 New Zealanders regularly take action to control plant or animal pests in their community. (40,000+ people currently are estimated to be part of a community group that manages weeds or pests). 
  • 90% of relevant businesses are actively managing pest and disease risk associated with their business. The initial focus will be on the 5 international risk pathways: craft, mail, cargo, passengers, and express freight. Later this will be extended to domestic risk pathways, such as coastal shipping and movement of equipment between farms.

In March 2018, to provide baselines for these targets, research was completed to better understand how the New Zealand public and businesses see biosecurity in their lives and work.

Engagement plan

The engagement plan sets out what success would look like if the goals and outcomes are met, and the actions needed to deliver them.

Download the Engagement plan for Strategic Direction 1: A biosecurity team of 4.7 million [PDF, 5.4 MB]

Building the team of 4.7 million

Ko Tātou This Is Us is helping to build New Zealand's biosecurity team of 4.7 million. Ko Tātou This Is Us, an independent biosecurity brand, aims to connect everyone involved in biosecurity, and encourage more New Zealanders to get involved. It includes a public campaign highlighting the personal connection of biosecurity to people's lives and their essential role helping to protect Aotearoa from pests and diseases. 

Video: Ko Tātou This Is Us – Protecting New Zealand takes everyone (1:00)


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Dear Aotearoa, dear home,

With every turn of the tide, every seam of the seasons, look around at all we have —
this plentiful way of life.

This place is more than the setting of my story. I was grown on its meat and milk.

Healed by its plants. My hands have dug kumara from its soil. My feet, tuatua from the sand.

This fragile place is all we've got. It's vulnerable to pests and diseases. So we must guard as if our way of life depends on it. Because it does.

As my last sunset creeps over the edge of our precious island, I'll be asking one thing of you.

Look after it. Protect it. Aotearoa – this is us.

[end transcript]

Our other strategic directions

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