Perceptions Research summary

Further to the previous news item here about this research, Tom has provided more of a summary and the full slides that were presented at the  2025 Wilding Pine Conference, and a summary: 

"Research from the Bioeconomy Science Institute investigated stakeholder perceptions of wilding conifers. In 2024 a survey was sent out across Aotearoa – to professionals in many different industries (Tourism, Forestry, Agriculture, Biosecurity, Government, Research, and more) – to gauge people’s perspectives on some tricky questions.

Some studies, such as the Survey of Rural Decision Makers, have touched on this subject before, however, were limited to one stakeholder group (rural landowners) and focussed on awareness and overall opinions of wilding conifers collectively. This new work was designed to dive deeper – with wilding conifers front and centre – to answer a range of questions including:

1.        Do people’s opinions on wilding conifers vary by region, or by their profession?

2.        Which species of wilding conifer, if any, are of greatest concern?

3.        How do opinions on wilding conifers compare to other invasive species?

Who answered the survey?

We received 850 responses, with most coming from Canterbury, Otago, and the Bay of Plenty. Many respondents identified as working in Environmental Protection, Government, Forestry, or Research roles.

Do people’s opinions on wilding conifers vary by region, or by their profession?

Opinions across all regions of NZ and professions were broadly consistent in categorising wilding conifers as either “extremely harmful” or “more harmful than beneficial”.

When asked about current levels of investment in wilding conifer control, all professions, across all regions of NZ, indicated that we need more investment in wilding conifer control.

Both forestry and environmental protection professionals were more confident about their wilding conifer knowledge than other professions, followed by ecologists, consultants, and other researchers. Tourism professionals were least confident in their knowledge around wilding conifers.

.        Which species of wilding conifer, if any, are of greatest concern?

People that indicated they were more concerned about some species compared to others were asked to elaborate on which species were most concerning.

Out of all 19 species of wilding conifer in NZ, 2 species were almost considered as bad as each other – Lodgepole Pine (Pinus contorta) and Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii). Although pretty neck-and-neck across NZ, lodgepole pine was slightly more concerning in Canterbury and on the North Island, while Douglas fir was a slightly greater concern in other parts of the South Island.

Radiata pine, the species most commonly planted for forestry purposes, was considered 3^rd most concerning – and the species of most concern from responses in Auckland. All other species were considered lower concern.

        How do opinions on wilding conifers compare to other invasive species?

When working with wilding conifers it can be easy to get tunnel-vision, thinking that our issue is the only issue in NZ, when in reality there are a lot of invasive species we have to deal with. Because of this, we wanted to know how people’s opinions on wilding conifers compared to other weeds (e.g., gorse), as well as to other invasive species (e.g., possums, rats).

When we look across NZ, we started to see differences appearing between the North and South Islands – with regions in the South Island more concerned about wilding conifers than those in the North. Regions in the North Island had similar levels of concern around wilding conifers to other weeds, whereas regions in the South Island were more concerned about wilding conifers.

Results were mixed when comparing wilding conifers to other invasives species. Some regions on the North Island were less concerned about wilding conifers (Northland, Auckland, Bay of Plenty), some on the South Island were still more concerned about wilding conifers (Otago, Southland), but overall respondents considered them to be a similar level of concern.

Interestingly though, despite varying levels of concern, all regions of NZ except Northland suggested wilding conifer control is underfunded compared to other weeds, and almost all regions of NZ (excl. Auckland, Northland, BOP) suggested wilding conifer control is underfunded compared to other invasive species.

Acknowledging that these results may still show bias, based on who answered the survey, we can suggest that concern around wilding conifers is on a similar level with other pests (e.g., possums, rats) – but crucially – does not have comparable levels of funding. 

Trends were similar when broken down by profession – with researchers and foresters more likely to suggest wilding conifer funding is about right compared to other groups."

A snapshot of the work was presented at the 2025 Wilding Pine Conference in Twizel in October, before being submitted to a scientific journal.