Landscape and wildlife
Auckland Airport is extremely fortunate to be surrounded by lush green fields and be right on the shoreline of the Manukau Harbour. We are committed to protecting and enhancing this natural environment. We do this through our wildlife management and landscaping programmes.
Landscaping
As the gateway to New Zealand, 70% of international visitors to our country pass through our airport and we want them to appreciate the unique beauty of our country’s landscape.
An attractive environment is created through:
• design guidelines to co-ordinate the overall image of the airport. These include guidelines for building design, site services and signage
• ensuring we keep a clean and tidy airport
• developing and maintaining parks, gardens and grounds to a high standard, including planted berms and car park gardens
• using New Zealand native plant species
• relocating mature trees affected by development
• providing recreational areas for travellers, visitors and employees.
Wildlife management
The Manukau Harbour shoreline is attractive both to large numbers of local birds and to flocks of migrating birds. During peak migration periods flocks of up to 15,000 birds can gather around the perimeter of the airport.
For airports around the world birds can present problems, such as causing damage to jet engines and endangering the safety of travellers. To manage this, we have an active wildlife programme, based on a good understanding of the natural environment and bird habits.
Risk areas are made unattractive to birds in different ways, including:
• keeping vegetation at a height unattractive for bird use
• active control of food sources such as worms, small rodents and rubbish
• providing suitable bird environments in low risk areas e.g. the company has developed and continues to monitor a bird roost at Wiroa Island a roost now recognised as having regional significance
• using mylar flags, predator balloons and other measures to scare off birds
• close monitoring of bird movements and behaviour patterns.