The Abel Tasman National Park can still look much as visitors might expect from a New Zealand wilderness: forest, rivers, beaches and a coastline opening onto the sea. Yet beneath that familiar scenery, the park has undergone a long ecological repair. According to the Project Janszoon official website it began in 2012, parts of the park had lost much of their natural richness to introduced predators and invasive plants. Fourteen years of pest control, weed removal, habitat work, species recovery and education have since changed what can be heard and seen across the landscape. Native birds are returning to places where they have become scarce, forest plants are recovering and a wider community has become involved in looking after the park.
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