It’s been a goal for a long time, for New Zealand to be predator-free by 2050. There are many issues to tackle in the quest to wipe out pests but one that is often overlooked is the ethical questions it raises.

That covers everything from big issues of technologies like genetic modification to what actually constitutes an “invasive species”.

Now there’s a panel to help answer these questions, we speak to one of the experts heading it up, conservation biologist Dr James Russell, from the University of Auckland.