Editorial: Biosecurity---fighting the odds?

Abstract

One of New Zealand's most able minds, and the first Minister of Biosecurity, The Hon Simon Upton, was the first senior politician in this country to articulate it's unique features. This isolated island was the last reasonably sized landmass to be invaded by humans. Its pristine wilderness was attacked, first by fire and later by mechanized instruments, as bush was cleared, initially for predation and later for pastoral farming. New species of plants and animals were imported, some desired and some unwelcome. Without the checks and balances to which they were subject in their original country, many spread over vast areas. Each summer, for example, parts of Marlborough are almost uninhabitable because of the wasps, which attack not only humans, but fledgling birds and native insects, as well as robbing native nectar-feeding birds of the honeydew on the black beech.