‘Heroes’ fought to preserve forests
Behind every great achievement is an enormous amount of hard work, completed by folk with a shared passion.
This is certainly the case in the campaigns to permanently protect New Zealand’s unique native forests. Paul Bensemann’s forthcoming book, Fight for the Forests, gives an insight into those campaigns, and the people behind them.
Debs Martin, regional manager for Forest & Bird, will join Bensemann on stage as part of the Nelson Arts Festival Page & Blackmore Readers and Writers programme for a conversation about Fight for the Forests on Monday, October 22. The session will provide a unique opportunity to hear readings from the book, which Potton & Burton will publish in November, and ask Bensemann questions.
‘‘The book is immediately compelling, telling stories of places we know, and packed with conservation heroes,’’ Martin says.
‘‘It details two decades of activism that saved our forests from logging and burning. From the internationally recognised forests of South Westland to the Pureora forests echoing with kokako song – the story of saving these forests by a dedicated and passionate group of mainly young conservationists, is a hero story of our time.’’
In 1972, Bensemann, then a 19-yearold Motueka Valley lad, travelled to Fiordland to work on the Save Manapouri campaign. It began a conservation journey which has involved not only activism, advisory roles and iwi liaison, but also saw Bensemann working as a spy for the Native Forests Action Council, to prevent the West Coast ‘‘beech scheme’’.
During a research road trip on the West Coast in 2015 with daughter Ngareka, Bensemann drove past rimu, beech and kahikatea forests covering tens of thousands of hectares, which at one time were at risk of being turned into pine plantations under the huge ‘‘beech scheme’’.
‘‘It would have completely transformed the West Coast, but the forest conservation movement stopped it,’’ he said. ‘‘Ngareka couldn’t believe that anyone would think of destroying such beautiful forests and all the wildlife within them.
‘‘I realised then that most people take for granted what the conservationists achieved, and don’t realise that the intrinsic natural values of these forests weren’t what saved them. It took smart campaigning and hard work, with lots of people giving up years of their lives to campaign fulltime with little or no pay.’’
Fight for the Forests is the story of those campaigns. Three years of research for the book, primarily comprising oral history, took Bensemann the length of New Zealand, during which he interviewed the main players and borrowed files and photos.
Martin says the book is ‘‘very accessible, and is needed at a time when the conservation challenges are still amongst us. These people . . . were at the heart of creating the Department of Conservation.’’
Fight for the Forests, Monday, October 22, 11am, Granary Festival Cafe. Tickets available online at nelsonarts festival.co.nz or ticketdirect.co.nz or in person at the Theatre Royal, Nelson Centre for Musical Arts, Nelson i-Site and Richmond Mall Information Desk.
Trish Palmer is an NMIT creative writing student