Campbell Leckie - Project Director

I started my working career as a Department of Conservation goat culler and possum trapper, but within a couple of years I moved on to work in biosecurity roles in regional councils, where at times I also led forestry and catchment management teams.

I have been incredibly fortunate to have a career which has been quite varied and very much focused around biosecurity and biodiversity – essentially helping the environment. However, one of the greatest privileges I received was to be given a significant amount of freedom to lead large-scale pest and ecological restoration programmes. Innovation, transformation at scale, and a focus on people have all played a critical part in the success of these projects, which include:

• Cape to City, Poutiri Ao ō Tāne and Whakatipu Mahia - these projects totalled around 50,000 ha of predator suppression or eradication, often using cutting edge predator control techniques and innovation to find the best way to deliver predator control in a way that worked for land owners and other stakeholders.
• Right Tree Right Place Project - this project looked at how to use an innovative impact investment to truly transform the scale of planting across the Hawke’s Bay Region in a way that retained our quality farming land.

Individually and collectively, everyone supporting the Predator Free Rakiura project has laid a great foundation to take it into its next phase. I am delighted to be appointed to the Project Director role for Predator Free Rakiura and I am keen to add my skills and experience to build together on the work done to date.