Gerry still digging himself into a hole
Tue, 17 Aug 2010 3:22 pm – Posted by Mandy | 3 Comments
Blogger: Forest & Bird’s Conservation Advocate Quentin Duthie
Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee still seems to be suffering from gold fever despite having to swallow a bitter pill when public opinion sank his plans to mine Schedule 4 protected conservation land.
The government’s backdown over Schedule 4 was a great victory for the conservation cause but we need to realise the fight to save some of our great landscapes and endangered animals and plants is far from over.
The government — and Gerry Brownlee in particular — is setting the scene for a further assault on our wild places by claiming the public consultation over removing Schedule 4 protection secured a mandate for mining on non-Schedule 4 conservation land.
The minister has said the mandate to mine more non-Schedule 4 conservation land was made clear in TV polls but such a question was never asked. He also said the same mandate came through during the public consultation but again, the question was not asked.
Despite this, thousands of submitters to the consultation stated their opposition to a proposed survey to search for mining prospects on conservation land.
And a total of 96 percent of people who responded gave a resounding no to a question on whether the Energy Minister should join the Conservation Minister in signing off applications for mining access to conservation land.
Submitters were clearly opposed to trading off short term economic gain for conservation values and did not want the Energy Minister having a say in the fate of conservation land, a move the government’s discussion document said would “better facilitate mineral development”.
We need to build on the strong support for Schedule 4 protection by pushing for all of the top quality conservation areas to be included in the schedule. At the moment world heritage and ecological areas, nature reserves, high country parks and marine mammal sanctuaries do not all qualify for Schedule 4 protection.
Furthermore, to ensure no government can again fly in the face of public opinion by trying to dig up Schedule 4 land, we want any future removals from the schedule to require an act of parliament rather than be subject to the whim of government ministers.
Can some one fill the hole in then!
Thanks Quentin.
We are all very concerned about “possible” mining on Schedule 4 land set aside for conservation.
CRYSTAL BASIN AND CRYSTAL VALLEY-CRAIGIEBURN CONSERVATION PARK
However rather than “possible” destruction of conservation land, DOC is about to decide on an application to destroy for a skifield and sewage waste scheme, 200 hectares of conservation land designated for total protection in the Craigieburn Conservation Park.
The omens are not good. DOC’s leaders seem determined to prove that they can mix it with the business sector. They will likely then want to support (Australian owned) Porter’s skifield businesses interests ahead of DOC’s legal committment to protect this area. The Canterbury DOC Conservator has already signalled this very strongly to the local Conservation Board and to his staff.
“The Press” reports today (18 August) that DOC expects to make their decision this week and the Skifield developer is in the paper almost daily championing his case. Today he was announcing a bribe of $150,000 he is pledging to “save” Arthur’s Pass National Park Great Spotted Kiwi (GSK) by stealing eggs from the parents in a very questionable incubation programme. DOC’s kiwi scientists have already responded by pointing out that his proposal is scientifically questionabl, of low priority and that GSK’s have a great range of higher “in situ” conservation priorities.
In 2004 the Nature Heritage Fund (NHF), of which I am a member, approved funding of a DOC Canterbury bid seeking around $4million of public conservation funds. They pledged to use the money to permanently legally protect around 9,000hectares of the Castle Hill Pastoral Lease provided we supported their case which involved the purchase of part of the lease. DOC Canterbury was adamant in their application that this land they sought is of national conservation importance. It contains rare dryland plants, representative tussock grasslands and shrublands, unique unmodified ecological sequences from the valley floor of the Castle Hill Basin to the summit of the Craigieburn Range. The Conservation Minister in 2004 approved this purchase so the protection of this area became government policy.
Moreover by purchasing the block for conservation, DOC made the point to the NHF that this would complete a continuous protected conservation land link from the Main Divide at Arthur’s Pass National Park across the high country drylands of the Craigieburn Conservation Park and the Korowai-Torlesse Tussockland Park to the Canterbury Plains…An extraordinary dryland Park sequence right across the eastern South Island.
The 200 hectares that DOC appear poised to hand to the Australian owned skifield company is being sought as Freehold title. Why? Because the skifield argue it would improve their ability to raise funds for what seems at the outset a very speculative venture.
Their fundraising ability (or lack of it) is frankly nothing to do with the protection or management of conservation land. It is their problem not the people of New Zealand’s.
How can this be happening? DOC undertook to the NHF and the Government that the land would forever be protected as Craigieburn Conservation Park. They didn’t promise to look after it only until they had a better offer from a neighbour!
If the land is freeholded to the developer and turned into a playground and a sewage works for what the developer says is a village for 3,500 people, the unmodified natural valley to mountain crest altitude sequence that 6 years ago was considered so important will be permanently destroyed. The protected natural link between the Main Divide and the Canterbury Plains will be severed forever. The unique plants and natural stream systems considered so imprtant 6 years ago will be wrecked.
Equally seriously what sort of appaling precedent does this set for every other piece of conservation land in New Zealand?
It is worth remembering that this is a Conservation Department decision and that it is their’s alone. It isn’t the Minister’s. It isn’t Cabinet’s. It isn’t Minister Gerry Brownlee’s or his MInistry of Economic Development.
If DOC approve the freeholding of this 200hectares of land pledged by them for total permanent protection, in future they could do anything, anywhere and no conservation land will be safe.
After the great Schedule 4 backdown, Gerry and regional authorities have set their sights on Northland.
Brownlee said kauri forests were not at risk. But magnetic imprinting to find gold and other minerals is being excluded only excluding Waipoua Forest. The great remaining kauri forests of Warawara, Waima, Puketi/Omahuta and others are included in the area currently undergoing magnetic imprinting - perhaps this is another big fib we were told.