Fostering native plants on roadside verges

Abstract

Road authorities in developed nations are required by their government agencies to prepare management strategies taking into account of the United Nations 'Convention on Biological Diversity' and biodiversity conservation. This international pressure has come from the United Nation requiring nations to adopt biological diversity and sustainable systems; a previously overlooked land resource has been exposed by this initiative, namely the land on either side of motor vehicle highways.

In New Zealand this amounts to 92,000 kilometres of highway and approximately 140,000 hectares of land, all of which are in public ownership, and distributed throughout the three islands of North, South and Stewart Islands. With such publicly available land there are three good reasons to adopt roadside verges to foster New Zealand native plants: High public visibility; Widespread geographic spread allows a majority of New Zealand species to benefit; Potential opportunities for public ecological enhancement schemes and volunteer projects.