Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage was in Taranaki again to lay out what the budget has in store for conservation.

Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage made her second visit within a week to Taranaki to lay out where conservation work sits in the government's budget and address public concerns on environmental issues.

The gathering of roughly 30 Taranaki residents on Wednesday evening raised questions on organic farming, carbon dioxide emissions, marine research, tourism, and the risks posed by the controversial pesticide, 1080.

Sage was confident however that 1080 was the best way to control predators at this time. The pesticide has been used regularly in the Egmont National Park.

ANDY JACKSON/STUFF Sage said her focus was on getting back to the clean green image New Zealand once held.

"There are some concerns about 1080 but it is the major tool we've got in the tool box to assist particularly in the more remote and mountainous areas" Sage told the gathering at Brian Bellringer Pavilion in Pukekura Park.

READ MORE:

*Govt commits $11.7m to make Taranaki first predator-free region

*How toxic is 1080? Toxicologist explains

*'We have a biodiversity crisis' - new Minister of Conservation says things will change

Sage's first visit to the region was to set out the government's plan for Taranaki to be predator-free by 2050 using aerial 1080 drops and traps on the ground.

This work will be funded from more than $200 million allocated in this year's Budget to the Department of Conservation (DOC) and predator control over the next four years.

"It's the biggest increase in the budget for DOC since 2002.

"We're in the middle of a biodiversity crisis with 4000 of our native species either threatened or at risk of extinction.

"We've only been on these islands for seven or eight centuries yet in that time we have bought massive transformation of our landscapes through fires and forestation."

Sage said the funding would allow research into other tools for tackling predators.

Her other focus is reclaiming New Zealand's 'green' image.

"A lot of that cheese, that butter, that milk powder is packaged up and exported overseas and marketed as being from clean, green, New Zealand but the reality here in Taranaki, through oil and gas exploration and land farming, hasn't always matched that.

"So in government we are trying to give integrity to our brand of being clean and green, taking action to try and make that image real."

Part of the funding will also be allocated towards more staff for DOC who Sage said had been stretched too thin for a long time.