Southern Lakes Sanctuary is working to save the more than 35 threatened species' that live in our region. Our wildlife can’t talk, but we can – and we’re here to passionately give a voice to, and save our native species.We are a landscape scale, community-led conservation project focused on a long-term strategy to increase biodiversity and protect native species through predator control, biodiversity monitoring and habitat protection. We operate as a consortium of six partner groups to support and enhance the conservation mahi of over 90 volunteer-led predator control projects with more than 1000 active volunteers. Across our 660,000ha project area we have diverse landscapes from alpine to native forest to braided rivers covering the catchments of Lakes Wānaka & Whakatipu, spanning two National Parks with UNESCO World Heritage status. This mahi is urgently needed to protect native habitat for both existing at-risk species, and to directly support threatened species recovery. Our generation is the last generation with the ability to save these species – this can be the legacy that we leave for our children and grandchildren – a deafening dawn chorus and thriving ecosystems. Since 2022, in collaboration with our partner groups, we have collectively added more than 4,000 new traps to the existing 6,400 traps and have removed over 35,555 pests - working towards our vision of thriving ecosystems with abundant wildlife. Our work to remove predators has led to increased breeding success of braided river birds, and the translocation of a species in the Greenstone Valley previously thought to be extinct – the takahē.