Stewart Island Lodge & Stewart Island Experience is closely involved with community conservation activities on Stewart Island, and actively supports Department of Conservation (DOC) efforts.
Conservation initiatives are an integral part of our overall strategic plan and day-to-day operations. Funding for these activities is taken into account when establishing budgets. Industry recognition of these efforts includes the Qualmark Enviro-Silver status. In 2007, the owners of Stewart Island Lodge, Real Journeys won the Department of Conservation NZ industry award of "Conservation in Action".
Below are the specific conservation activities relating to Stewart Island:
Best environmental practice
Conservation is also part of Real Journeys heritage and a cornerstone of our modern day business. We understand we are privileged to operate in this spectacular part of New Zealand and we take our responsibility to protect our natural heritage and preserve our environment seriously.
To honour our conservation commitments and philosophy, we work closely with both the Department of Conservation (DoC) and the local communities we operate in. We contribute significant funds and in-kind support towards a variety of projects that support habitats, recovering species and clean up initiatives.
In order to reduce our environmental footprint, we work to operate within best practice guidelines. This includes regular internal environmental audits and benchmarking reviews to identify areas for assessment and improvement. Real Journeys holds Qualmark Enviro Silver status and has been awarded the NZ Tourism Industry Association’s Conservation in Action Award.
In recent years we have also contributed significant funds to assist DoC to study the rare Stewart Island Harlequin Gecko and the Pekapeka/native bat.
We’ve also assisted with bird transfer programmes for the endangered Pateke/Brown Teal and funded pest eradication programmes on Stewart Island.
Approximately 80 percent of Stewart Island is set aside as the Rakiura National Park, New Zealand's newest national park.
Ulva Island has an area of 267 hectares (660 acres) approx, and almost all of this is part of the Rakiura National Park.
It has had different names in the past, but the current name came from another island of Ulva - part of the Inner Hebrides of Scotland.