Registrations for new vertebrate pesticides have declined over the last 40 tears in most parts of the world, except in New Zealand. The ongoing need to protect our native biodiversity against invasive predators makes us one of the few countries where landscape-scale routine use of toxins in conservation areas is officially accepted. The most advanced and strictly monitored protocols have been developed over decades of experience, especially for aerial distribution of 1080 (sodium monofluroacetate). Public criticism has driven research demonstrating that a well-timed 1080 drop can clear large areas of rats and stoats by direct and secondary poisoning much more effectively than can trapping. Before- and after-monitoring of radio-collared stoats in Pureora Forest Park during a 1080 drop in 1997 proved that all 13 collared stoats died, most having eaten dead rats. Successive landscape-scale programmes distributing 1080 in Fiordland in seedfall years increased the survival of sitting females and newly fledged juveniles of hole-nesting bush birds. The resulting relief from nest predation is temporary, but adds valuable cohorts of young adults to the breeding populations. New alternative toxins like PAPP aimed at stoats and cats are in development.