Work on the West Coast’s long-awaited new conservation management strategy is officially on hold – pending new laws controlling what can and can’t be done on public conservation land.
More than a thousand people responded to a survey last year on what was important to them on West Coast conservation lands and waters; how those places should be managed and what activities should be allowed where – including commercial ones.
DOC, Poutini Ngāi Tahu and the West Coast Tai Poutini Conservation Board had almost reached the point of public consultation on a new draft conservation management strategy (CMS).
And at the board meeting in Westport yesterday, Chair Mike Legge noted the amount of work that had gone into the project.
“But if we go further, we risk wasting time on a document that may not be consistent with the new [Government] policy.”
In August, the Government announced decisions to modernise and streamline conservation land management, and the Conservation Acts (Land Management) Amendment Bill is being drafted to give effect to those decisions.
That meant requirements for planning documents like the CMS were likely to change, DOC’s West Coast Operations Director, Owen Kilgour said.
“Together with Poutini Ngāi Tahu and the West Coast Tai Poutini Conservation Board, we have decided to pause the CMS review until we have more clarity on what future planning documents will look like.”
But the effort people had put into to responding to the CMS survey would not be wasted, Mr Kilgour said.
“We’ve received some really useful information about what’s important to people and what they like to do when out naturing (sic) on conservation land.
“We thank everyone for their input and want to assure them this information will be useful in our future planning.”
Dr Mike Legge, who was re-elected as Conservation Board chair at yesterday’s meeting, told LDR the law changes were set to be major and the decision to press pause on the CMS was a pragmatic one, but it was disappointing to have to make it.
“We had decided to keep going on earlier when all the submissions were coming through but given there’s a huge element of uncertainty hanging over what this legislation will look like and the implications it might have.”
The board felt it was better to wait and see what happens, then pick it up again once they know more, Legge said.
If the new laws made radical changes to the use of Conservation land it was possible DOC, iwi and the Board would have to go back to square one with the CMS plans, and the existence or responsibilities of Conservation Boards themselves could be impacted.
A clearer picture of what might lie ahead for conservation lands on the West Coast should emerge when the Amendment Bill was presented to Parliament, as expected, before Christmas, Legge said.
By Lois Williams for Local Democracy Reporting
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
