# Containment for conservation: stopping the spread of wallabies

_Stopping the spread of wallabies takes commitment and innovation. A 12.5km containment fence plays a key role in protect native forests, commercial forestry and farmland._

If you look left driving south out of Rotorua on State Highway 5, you may notice a fence on the edge of the Whakarewarewa Forest. While it may look like a typical wire fence, it has an important role to play in the pest management of wallabies – a significant problem to the local environment and economy.

The fence was designed and built as part of Tipu Mātoro, the National Wallaby Eradication Programme. Established in 2020, this partnership programme has a long-term aspirational goal of a wallaby-free Aotearoa.

To achieve this, the programme strategy is to prevent wallabies from spreading outside of areas where they are already established, called the containment area, then systematically working inwards to eradicate them.

Davor Bejakovich, Tipu Mātoro Central North Island Wallaby Programme Lead, says this fence helps protect native forests, commercial forestry and farmland from the impacts of wallaby browsing.

“The fence runs for 12.5km from Rotorua to Lake Rotokakahi and is designed to stop wallabies from crossing the highway and spreading south, where other wallaby control methods are successfully reducing numbers.”

Wallabies were first released near the Rotorua Lakes area in 1912. Since then, they have spread across more than 200,000ha of the Bay of Plenty and Waikato regions.

“It’s estimated that, if left unchecked, one third of the North Island could be impacted by the spread of wallabies by 2065,” says Mr Bejakovich. “That has huge financial, social and cultural impacts for everyone.”

[Video](https://youtu.be/EV0jkY6KxPA?si=reDY0eXnvfqKt_bI)