Two community environmental programmes say their projects have generated at least five million hours of volunteer labour.
The World Wildlife Fund's Habitat Protection Fund and the Wellington Regional Council's Take Care programme are celebrating their 10th anniversaries.
When they began, the programmes broke new ground by mobilising volunteers to do the work on conservation projects, rather than funding professionals.
Together, they spent almost $3 million supporting about 500 projects.
The World Wildlife Fund estimates its programme has contributed more than five million volunteer hours to projects including dune restoration near Whanganui and pest control on South Island braided rivers.
