The story of taiko conservation is a staggering one. Brought back from extinction when rediscovered by David Crockett in 1978, it took a further ten years to locate the breeding colonies in the rugged bush of the Tuku Valley located in the Tuku Nature Reserve, a reserve gifted to the crown by Manuel and Evelyn Tuanui. Predator control within the Reserve is vital to taiko survival, and each year the Department of Conservation sends in teams of trappers to help protect the birds. Many saw that developing a secure, predator free breeding site was the only real chance taiko had of surviving long-term, and the Taiko Trust decided to take on the challenge.

The Trust successfully secured funding from the New Zealand Lottery Grants Board and the Biodiversity Condition Fund to erect over 800 meters of predator proof fence to protect 2.4 hectares of regenerating forest within the Sweetwater Conservation Covenant. Sweetwater is located on privately owned Tuku Farm, and is the most isolated place in New Zealand where a predator fence had ever been built. Its construction presented a major logistical challenge, and with plenty of hard work and dedication, the project was completed in 2006. Sweetwater was chosen because it was a historical taiko breeding site, and is a distinctive hill which provides birds with a good aerial display site. The completion of fencing and opening of the Sweetwater predator free site was a major milestone for seabird conservation in the Chathams.

With a secure area for breeding now in place, artificial burrows were dug into the ground and a sound system set up to play taiko calls each evening. Between 2007 and 2014, the Taiko Trust transferred 66 taiko chicks from the Tuku Nature Reserve into Sweetwater before fledging. This concentration of breeding activity is considered paramount in preserving taiko. These chicks are returning in staggering numbers, and the first two pairs of taiko have started breeding – the beginnings of a secure breeding colony!

Although Sweetwater was originally constructed for taiko, it has become a very important breeding site for other seabirds as well, such as the Chatham petrel. Between 2008 and 2011, a total of 200 petrel chicks were transferred from Rangatira to Sweetwater, with the first birds already found breeding in 2012. Since then, four chicks have successfully fledged, and the number of breeding pairs continues to increase. Returning this extirpated species back to Main Chatham was a huge success.

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