Labour Conservation spokesperson Nanaia Mahuta believes the outlook for New Zealand's indigenous species is looking grim.

Nanaia says a new Auditor-General's report Prioritising and Partnering to Manage Biodiversity has found the Department of Conservation has made few improvements in managing biodiversity.

Labour Conservation spokesperson Nanaia Mahuta. Photo: File

'[The report] found the Department has made limited progress in following up its 2012 recommendations,” she says.

'It found the Department needs to improve the way it works with partners to better tackle the battle against the threats to New Zealand's indigenous species and the habitats they live in.”

Nanaia says following the DOC's restructuring the Government has failed to adequately fund the core activities of the Department to protect biodiversity.

In 2012 the Auditor-General said that while the Department was recognised for its leading conservation methods and practices, ‘it was not winning and they were merely slowing the decline in biodiversity'.

'Funding long-term plans to carry out biodiversity protection with measures that partner groups and local councils can assess progress is important.

'The Minister [Maggie Barry] needs to turn her attention to the crisis that DOC is facing and adopt these recommendations with some urgency,” says Nanaia.