Molesworth National Park?

When the lease on Molesworth Station expires, it has been suggested that the land could be used to form a national park.

Mcguinness Institute chief executive Wendy Mcguinness featured on the television show What Next?, where Nigel Latta and John Campbell explored what New Zealand could look like in 2037, and Mcguinness said one of the greatest points of leverage was to develop ‘‘biological corridors’’ connecting New Zealand’s national parks.

After reading about an initiative in Bhutan to increase forest cover, she thought the same principle could be applied in New Zealand.

Bhutan has protected forest areas, and its constitution stipulates that 60 per cent of the country must be under forest cover. The protected areas are connected by biological corridors which allow wildlife to move freely between habitats.

Mcguinness proposed two new national parks, one in the Molesworth and another in the Marlborough Sounds, linked by a biological corridor.

The farming lease on Molesworth Station expires in 2020, and its future is being considered by the Department of Conservation (DOC). The country’s largest farm, at 180,000ha, it is leased and farmed by Landcorp but managed by DOC on behalf of the Crown.

Mcguinness said the concept of a biological corridor was not new. A geographically defined area, it provided connectivity between landscapes, ecosystems and habitats to maintain biodiversity.

She said Marlborough was a special part of the country and the Molesworth, positioned between Blenheim and Canterbury, was an ideal spot for tourism.

‘‘You need a couple of jewels in the crown, and the Molesworth and the Marlborough Sounds could be those jewels, but it will require leadership.’’

Mcguinness said such a project required ‘‘legacy investment’’ but would ensure a resource was left for future generations.

Forest and Bird top of the south regional manager Debs Martin said the Molesworth was an area of incredible biodiversity, and the end of the farming lease provided the opportunity to have a conversation about its restoration.

She said almost half of the 60 endemic plant species from South Marlborough were found in the Molesworth, which was one of the reasons it became a DOC recreation reserve in 2005.

Martin said there was lots of tussock-covered hillside with grazing cattle throughout the country, so it was important to consider how else the Molesworth land could be used.

‘‘There is a lot of work that needs to be done to restore it. There are pests and weeds, it has had years of grazing and farming, and while some values have been protected, equally a lot of values have been destroyed.’’

Martin said national parks were one mechanism for protecting biodiversity, and Forest and Bird had previously lobbied for existing conservation land in Marlborough to form the Kaiko¯ ura Ranges National Park.

She said there was no reason why the Molesworth couldn’t become a national park.

‘‘It’s scenic, it is scientifically important, it has got ecosystems and threatened species, it’s got everything there in the mix. It would need vision and money if it was to become a national park.’’

Author Harry Broad, who wrote a book on the Molesworth, said he wasn’t opposed to the formation of new national parks or the concept of increasing forest cover, but he didn’t think the Molesworth was the right site for it.

‘‘You are a long way from natural forest predominating on Molesworth. At the moment, it is wilding pines.’’

Broad said the St James Conservation Area between Nelson and Christchurch had better potential as a national park.

‘‘I would rather see existing national parks strengthened if there is spare money about to cater for the absolute tidal wave of tourists that is coming through.’’

Broad said that on a recent trip to Milford Sound, he was told it was frequented by 700,000 visitors a year.

‘‘I think we have real pressure points, and I would rather see much better facilities and much more biodiversity protection of what there is.’’

Broad said that if the Molesworth was to become a national park, the number of people travelling through it would greatly increase.

‘‘In terms of preserving areas, why would you want to open it up to a whole lot more tourists?’’

A DOC spokesperson said its survey into the future use of Molesworth Station had received more than 4900 submissions.

There was no proposal for Molesworth Station to become a national park, nor was DOC researching or planning new biological corridors, the spokesperson said.