Rats, stoats and mustelids will be in the firing line as part of a new predator-free goal for the Wellington region.

An ambitious plan to make Wellington the world's first predator-free capital is expected to be unveiled on Tuesday.

It's believed the project will aim to rid the capital of the top three invasive predators - rats, stoats and mustelids - starting with Miramar.

"The idea is to create what is effectively a predator-free Wellington region," said Greater Wellington regional council (GWRC) chairman Chris Laidlaw.

Karoline Tuckey Lizards, such as this grass skink found on the Kapiti coast recently, would thrive in a predator free environment, experts say.

"A big ask but it's a worthy objective and helps focus the minds of people who don't understand what a predator can do.

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"The Next Foundation have decided they are going to take a good crack at this."

MONIQUE FORD/FAIRFAX NZ Chris Laidlaw, Greater Wellington Regional Council chairman.

The Next Foundation is a New Zealand organisation that dishes out up to $15 million per year for "strategic philanthropy", with a total fund of $100m available. It is making the announcement in conjunction with Wellington City Council and GWRC.

"The scale of the ambitious project is large and will be internationally significant. However, Wellington will be well placed to deliver it," a city council invitation read.

Victoria University ecologist Dr Heiko Wittmer said he had heard that an "announcement around predator-free Wellington" would be made on Monday.

"There's already a pretty big movement, where we have individual people setting traps in their backyard to try and control these species."

One of the attendees is predator-free advocate Kelvin Hastie, who has spent two years leading the charge for the Wellington suburb of Crofton Downs to become free of rats, stoats and mustelids.

More recently, Khandallah, Ngaio, Wadestown, Wilton and Highbury have joined the cause.

The details of the latest project are yet to be revealed, but several experts agree the effects of such a move would see the city's native habitat thrive.

"I don't even want to think about how many weta and little invertebrates are being gobbled up all the time," Wittmer said.

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Miramar would be a logical place to start the roll-out, Forest and Bird spokesman Kevin Hackwell said. The natural peninsula, along with the airport runway, provides a barrier to the rest of the city.

"[The Wellington City] Council and Miramar [residents] have made the Miramar Peninsula possum free and most of the Wellington peninsula has very low possum numbers, which is the reason we have tuis.

"The idea of doing rats and stoats is great."

Hackwell said eradicating the big three invasive pests would see invertebrates and lizards thrive.

"You would see a proliferation of lizards, that have been munched and munched, and more regeneration of our forest."

World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) New Zealand said communities were already embracing predator free initiatives, and it was great that the city and regional council had come on board.

"I think [this] makes sense in Wellington, it's an amazing place for communities in action," head of conservation projects Michele Frank said.

Speakers will include Hastie, Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown, Conservation Minister Maggie Barry, regional council chairman Chris Laidlaw and chairman of Zero Invasive Predators Ltd (ZIP) Devon McLean.

PREDATOR FREE CROFTON DOWNS: HOW DID IT WORK?

In December 2015, Crofton Downs was officially declared New Zealand's first predator-free suburb.

In 2014, resident Kelvin Hastie

came across the Halo website, which encourages Wellingtonians to play a part by setting rat and traps themselves, and rallied together a group.

Later that year the group won a $5000 grant from the Morgan Foundation, which went towards pest traps that were handed out to households.

It meant each person who was keen could have a trap on their property and monitored catches.

About 200 households took part in the Crofton Downs project and collectively trapped more than 186 rats, 13 weasels and five stoats within the first year.

After that, 25 tracking tunnels were set at 25m intervals to do a stocktake of the rat, stoat and weasel population. No rats were detected.

It's understood a total of three stoats and mustelids were detected, significantly down on previous years.

The Morgan Foundation concluded therefore, if one in five households set traps, you could remove rats from a suburb.