Call time on new mines

Twelve years ago, I joined my first protest. Forty thousand New Zealanders marched down Auckland’s Queen St to protest against a government plan to open up more public conservation land for mining.

As someone who spent part of my childhood living in a national park, this concerning proposal was at the heart of my decision to join Forest & Bird as a conservation advocate. I was just two months into this new role when I was invited to take the mic and rally the crowd.

Not far from me, a young Labour MP brandished a giant red placard emblazoned with the slogan ‘‘Ours, not mines’’. She’s now our prime minister, Jacinda Ardern. In the years since, for both of us, our careers have taken us to places where we have been able to make a real difference in the things we are passionate about.

But at the same time, one important thing hasn’t changed. Mines continue to destroy public conservation land. This is despite a promise made by the Government in 2017. In the Speech from the Throne – a declaration of the Government’s vision and intent for Aotearoa – nine words stood out: ‘‘There will be no new mines on conservation land.’’

Five years on that promise remains unfulfilled. Mining activities on conservation land continue to be approved – including exploratory drilling for tungsten near Glenorchy; gold exploration in the Coromandel; and permits granted across Northland, Rotorua and the West Coast to a billionaire Aussie mining magnate.

Without legislative change more is set to come, such as a proposed mining expansion on conservation land near Reefton that would lock us into coal mining into the 2040s.

Fortunately, the Government now has a chance to fulfil its promise. Late last month the Crown Minerals (Prohibition of Mining) Amendment Bill was drawn from the members’ bill ballot. This bill would ban new mines on conservation land and prevent new coal mining permits on any land from 2025.

Support of this bill is an important test of the Government’s commitment to that 2017 statement. It’s also an important test of its commitment on climate change.

Allowing mining on public conservation land – which is often carbon-storing forest or wetland – is inconsistent with both the Emissions Reduction Plan and the National Adaptation Plan.

There’s a misconception that a review process now under way reclassifying a type of conservation ‘‘land in limbo’’, called stewardship land, will help. It won’t. Only land that is added to Schedule 4 categories (mostly national parks, wilderness areas and scientific areas) will be protected from mining. The majority of public conservation land remains at risk, including some of our most special places.

Ten years ago, I visited the Denniston Plateau with 150 scientists and volunteers. Our goal was to scour this windswept, cloudcloaked escarpment and its forested gullies for critters big and small. It was a rapid census of living things known as a Bioblitz.

We found we¯ ta¯ , land snails, flatworms, geckos and skinks – a stunning array of species making their home on this plateau. Scientists discovered a new species of moth, now named the Arctesthes avatar, commonly known as the avatar moth, because like the blue-hued Na’vi people in the movie, its home is threatened by mining.

Since the Bioblitz, one opencast coal mine has destroyed part of the Denniston Plateau’s conservation land. Without better protection, future large-scale mining plans will irreversibly destroy this biodiversity hotspot – and all for an outdated, climatepolluting fossil fuel.

The International Energy Agency has said if the planet is to stay within safe limits, there must be no new coal, oil or gas developments after 2021. Forest & Bird was recently in court opposing expanded coal mining in both Southland and on a pristine forested West Coast mountaintop.

If we want a liveable future for our rangatahi, tamariki and mokopuna, the transition needs to start now.

Our mountains, forests, wetlands and rivers are for our biodiversity, our climate and our future. Ardern and her Cabinet have the opportunity to show they’re serious about climate change and to deliver on this generation’s ‘‘nuclear-free moment’’. If they are, they must support this bill.

Nicola Toki is chief executive of Forest & Bird.