Landowners genuinely working hard to reduce rabbit numbers are unlikely to face enforcement action if they do not manage to get numbers down to required limits by 2012, the Otago Regional Council says.
The council's pest management strategy, which became operational last year, gave landowners until 2012 to get rabbit levels below the maximum allowable limit of three (on a scale of one to 10).
Under the strategy, landowners with high rabbit numbers needed to put approved control plans in place to reduce those numbers and hold them at the allowable level.
"In some of the rabbit-prone areas of Central Otago this effort has proved very costly and is ongoing for a few landowners," environmental services manager Martin King said in a report.
However, the council acknowledged for some, it would be unrealistic to meet that level in the allowable time.
Dr Selva Selvarajah said if a landowner was making all efforts to control numbers, some leeway would be given.
"If we see people not bothering about submitting a plan . . . we'll target [them] through enforcement."
Regional services group manager Jeff Donaldson said in many cases, farmers were "spending more than $50,000 a year and will be doing that for the next three years".
The council had received many more plans than it had expected, he said.
