Author(s): Diane Campbell-Hunt

NZ Natural History

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Over the past 10 years many communities around the country have launched ambitious projects to bring New Zealand's native ecologies back to the mainland. By building predator-proof fences around big areas of land the aim is to protect native flora and fauna from introduced predators such as possums, mice, rats and stoats. These projects have faced a difficult balancing act as they try to build and sustain the social and economic support needed. Diane Campbell-Hunt was two years into a PhD study of the long-term sustainability of these ventures when she was tragically killed in a tramping accident in 2008. Her work had assembled the experience of a wide range of people involved with these projects - volunteers, DOC staff, trustees, iwi, employees, community leaders and project champions. After Diane's death, her husband Colin took up the challenge to write up her research, and Eco-sanctuaries is the result.