Government urged to be honest about ocean protection
Green lobbyists are calling on the Government to ‘‘tell the truth’’ over how much of New Zealand’s oceans are protected.
WWF New Zealand, backed by Forest and Bird and Pew, have written an open letter to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, published today.
The Government is due to report to the United Nations by the end of the year on the progress made on marine protection.
Previously, the Government has told the UN and the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development) that 30 per cent of our waters are in reserves.
But conservationists say that’s a lie – or a ‘‘whopper’’ – because officials are counting benthic protection areas.
They were proposed by the fishing industry in 2006 but prevent only bottom trawling and dredging.
Environmentalists say that is not true marine protection – and in reality only about 0.5 per cent of New Zealand’s waters are in reserves. The letter, also published as a full-page newspaper advertisement entitled ‘‘Is this New Zealand’s biggest fishing whopper’’, calls the BPAs ‘‘bogus protected areas’’. ‘‘Almost all of what has been claimed as protected was identified by fishing industry lobbyists.
‘‘Those are primarily areas where they don’t fish, rather than the ocean spaces science tells us are the most important,’’ the letter says.
And it goes on: ‘‘It’s not honest ... we believe New Zealanders deserve honest reporting and real protection for places that matter.’’
It calls on Ardern to listen to scientists, marine experts, NGOs and iwi on the issue.
Geoff Key, of Forest and Bird, said: ‘‘If you can drill it, mine it or fish above it, it’s not a marine protected area.’’ New Zealand’s exclusive economic zone is very large, and Key says New Zealand’s reporting is distorting the global picture. ‘‘Nobody else goes and reads our rules and legislation – they are not going to do that for every country that is reporting. ‘‘They have to take it on trust. ‘‘We get away with it because they are trusting us,’’ he said.
Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage says the Government is not going to expand the network of BPAs in lieu of more stringent marine protected areas. But she hasn’t committed to excluding them from international reporting.
‘‘I am considering how to treat benthic protection areas (BPAs) in New Zealand’s national report; I have requested advice and will decide after I have considered that advice. I expect to decide by the end of September.’’
The World Conservation Monitoring Centre is an agency of the UN’s environment programme.
The Convention of Biodiversity came out of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit and has 196 members.
The proposed Kermadec sanctuary would take the proportion of New Zealand’s EEZ under full marine protection from 0.5 per cent to 15 per cent. But that is currently being contested by the fishing industry, some iwi and NZ First.
The Marine Reserves Act was passed in 1971 and critics say it is outdated.
The previous National Government proposed an overhaul but faced a backlash from environmentalists because it offered protection only in New Zealand’s territorial seas, not the wider exclusive economic zone.