Why does Canterbury need this?

Could Living Springs become an eco-sanctuary? Part 3

Once Jim had established what ecological restoration actually means, he widened the lens. Before asking whether Living Springs was the right place for an eco-sanctuary, he looked at Canterbury itself and his assessment is sobering. 

Canterbury was once an extraordinarily biodiverse region, with ecosystems stretching from the mountains to the coast and across the Canterbury Plains, Port Hills and Banks Peninsula. Today, Jim describes Canterbury as one of the most biodiversity depleted and modified regions in New Zealand. 

That loss also affects where conservation effort goes. Regions where significant indigenous ecosystems and threatened species still survive naturally tend to attract conservation attention. Canterbury’s historic losses mean it now has less surviving indigenous biodiversity and, as Jim points out, does not feature as highly in national conservation priorities. 

There is an uncomfortable paradox in that. A region can lose so much biodiversity that there is less left to protect, and it therefore attracts less attention precisely because so much has already disappeared. But Jim argues that this strengthens rather than weakens the case for active restoration. 

Conservation on a regional scale 

Across Canterbury, communities, councils, landowners and conservation groups have already begun that work. On Banks Peninsula and the Port Hills, remnants of native habitat are being protected, predators controlled and forest restored. But Jim’s investigation asked whether Living Springs could contribute something on a different scale. 

Could it become a place where an ecosystem is not simply protected, but substantially rebuilt? Could species absent from much of Canterbury establish new populations here? Could those populations eventually strengthen biodiversity beyond Living Springs itself? 

His conclusion was significant. Jim identified Living Springs as having the potential to become a keystone site in the restoration of the Canterbury region, filling an important gap in the representation of New Zealand’s biodiversity. What happens here could matter well beyond our boundary. 

But regional need alone doesn’t make a site suitable for an eco-sanctuary. Jim’s next question was much closer to home. Why Living Springs?