NZ water fresher than our conservation law
Ruataniwha has been easy pickings for environmental lobbyists, writes Jonathan Underhill.
For the most part farmers have come to the party, planting out waterways and grappling with nutrient budgets.
It is Conservation Week and almost 30 years since the Department of Conservation was created by legislation that put all the Crown’s conservation management functions into a single agency.
While the public is being encouraged to ‘‘join the team’’ in nationwide events ranging from fun runs to composting clinics, DOC advisers are pondering whether the department should challenge a Court of Appeal ruling that director-general Lou Sanson was wrong in law to revoke the special protection of a small piece of Ruahine Forest Park.
The designation change to what’s known as stewardship land would have allowed Sanson to approve a land swap with Hawke’s Bay Regional Investment Company (HBRIC) – a win-win deal where 170 hectares would be added to the conservation estate in exchange for ceding 22ha of land to be flooded for the Ruataniwha Water Storage Scheme.
Instead, two out of three judges ruled that specially protected land couldn’t be so easily traded away.
Irrigation New Zealand says DOC has two options: a Supreme Court challenge; or a law change to provide the flexibility for deals such as a land swap that offer a net gain to the conservation estate.
The public could be confused into thinking DOC had forgotten its mandate, since its act entrusted the department with the duty of being kaitiaki, or guardian, of New Zealand’s most special wild places.
It didn’t help that three years earlier a draft DOC submission on Ruataniwha surfaced that called the scheme risky and untested.
It was never presented, and the Green Party claimed the short, neutral submission resulted from pressure from the then conservation minister, Nick Smith. So much for conservation advocacy – DOC ended up alongside HBRIC fighting an appeal by Forest and Bird.
Ruataniwha has been easy pickings for environmental lobbyists. Greenpeace linked the contamination of Havelock North’s water supply to intensive farming, with the implication potable water would become even scarcer if the irrigation scheme went ahead – though a more plausible explanation was a crumbling old Hastings District Council bore that got inundated in wet weather.
Meanwhile, DOC’s guardian role (which extends to history and heritage) has come in for more scrutiny with the demolition of the Aniwaniwa Visitor Centre, designed by renowned architect John Scott and listed by Heritage New Zealand as a Category One Historic Place. The Institute of Architects is up in arms.
There are reasons to feel miserable about the environment in New Zealand, the country with the highest number of endangered species entrusted to a department watched over by the most junior member of a Cabinet that focuses on economic development.
And DOC has previously endured savage cutbacks and restructuring, shedding 250 jobs.
And aren’t our waterways becoming increasingly dirty – 100% Pure, it’s false advertising isn’t it? Well, no, actually.
Environmental Defence Society chairman Gary Taylor says fresh water is on an improving trajectory compared to where it was five years ago.
And he’s just witnessed a conservative government sign up to Predator Free 2050, which aims to rid New Zealand of possums, rats and stoats by then and have the offshore islands pest free by 2025, which is ‘‘cause for a bit of optimism’’. Add to that the fact that for the most part farmers have come to the party, planting out waterways and grappling with nutrient budgets.
Sanson, appointed in 2013, was ‘‘an incredible breath of fresh air’’ for DOC, presiding over a period of stability for a department suffering low morale from repetitive restructuring. Taylor does want to see a lift in advocacy work, which he says has ‘‘stabilised at low levels’’.
As the world moves into what is being called the Anthropocene age dominated by humans, ‘‘New Zealand, located deep down in the South Pacific, with one third of its natural land protected by the Crown and good management of private sector land, is in a great position.’’
Sanson won’t comment on Ruataniwha while DOC is mulling its next step but he’s not shy about talking up New Zealand’s prospects.
He says DOC’s key challenges are restoring biodiversity and preparing for a tourism boom that is going to see visitor numbers soar from 2 million to 5 million.
DOC can’t prescribe the solution – it has to be achieved by engaging with communities and business, instilling a sense that DOC land ‘‘is our land’’.
‘‘It’s a fantastic time to be CEO of DOC and see conservation becoming mainstream,’’ Sanson says. ‘‘This is one of the most amazing places on the planet and, with a predator-free New Zealand, we can be the new Galapagos of the world.’’ –BusinessDesk