These and other issues facing the jewelled gecko were the subject of a well-attended half-day seminar at the New Zealand Marine Studies Centre in Portobello on Saturday.
Department of Conservation technical officer Bruce McKinlay said despite the recent high profile arrests of two wildlife smugglers, poaching remained a high threat.
"New Zealand geckos are in demand overseas, and jewelled geckos are right at the top of the list. We expect [poaching] to carry on."
Mr McKinlay said overseas poachers were highly organised and well resourced, and had "almost certainly" made an impact on the jewelled gecko population.
Apart from Government agencies working together to stop the illegal trafficking of jewelled gecko and other New Zealand wildlife, raising public awareness over their plight was important.
The threat posed by of mice, rats and stoats was a more pressing issue for the future of jewelled gecko, he said.
No-one knows more about the population of jewelled gecko on the peninsula than University of Otago wildlife management student Carey Knox, who is counting and photographing the threatened species.
He said pest control and further research into tools such as electronic monitoring would help the gecko population - as would not revealing where they lived.
"You have to be very careful."
