Ms Gaynor, who recently moved from Queensland, Australia, to Otago, will support on-the-ground protection of the Waitaki district's indigenous biodiversity and assist landowners in protecting native vegetation.
The part-time position is funded for three years by the Biodiversity Advice Fund, administered by the Department of Conservation. It is hoped more funding will be secured to make the role full-time.
After managing a family business for almost a decade, Ms Gaynor returned to university in her early 30s and followed her passion by studying zoology and marine biology at James Cook University in Townsville.
She then returned to Melbourne and did post-graduate studies, followed by field research in Victoria's alpine country. She was later employed in North Queensland doing land clearing assessments on outback rural land. The rates of deforestation were "quite extraordinary" and it was "quite destructive", with very little regard to biodiversity, she said.
Ms Gaynor was also extensively involved in community conservation efforts on Magnetic Island, while also working towards post-graduate planning qualifications.
Magnetic Island is part of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage area and the island came under "quite substantial pressure" for resort development.
She set up a small group that did what it could, on the ground, using science and law to ensure more balanced outcomes than were the trends at the time.
Those efforts did slow down what was a concerted attempt to redevelop the island to levels of intensity that were damaging to the ecology, she said.
Ms Gaynor's new role is primarily non-regulatory, and the first thing she wants to do is produce a draft biodiversity strategy for the district, which dovetails in with Environment Canterbury's biodiversity strategy.
She was excited about the job and looking forward to meeting landowners who wanted to retain or restore the natural environment on their properties, as well as getting to know the district.
She wanted to encourage the stabilisation of native vegetation and strategic replanting.
"The land management decisions they [landowners] make will determine the direction of evolution for the indefinite future," she said.
She and her husband have settled at Palmerston, where they hope to build an eco-house in the future.
Waitaki District Council planning manager David Campbell said landowners and other groups were very excited to have Ms Gaynor on board.