Bruce Bisset: Flouting rules mocks conservation

Granting oil companies the right to do seismic testing in offshore zones inhabited by the critically endangered Maui's and Hector's dolphins insults the very idea of conservation. Photo / Department of Conservation

Somehow we have fallen for the American-driven model of economics that insists on consumption despite all costs - and are rapidly consuming the best bits of our country, seemingly without a care.

Certainly this National Government does not care. Report after report signalling degradation of this and loss of that is dismissed as inconsequential or, worse, mocked and sneered at as if it were a joke.

Wetlands are being destroyed in Northland by companies illegally digging up ancient kauri and flogging them wholesale to China, and not only is this unlawful trade inexplicably allowed to continue but the irretrievably damaged habitats are mocked by a minister of the Crown as "only swamps". That's "only" 5 per cent of the wetlands New Zealand had pre-colonisation. No wonder the land cannot bear the impact of pastoral intensification when almost all its natural filtration systems are gone.

And the minister's husband's company is one of those responsible for the destruction.

We must not have GM-free zones such as that created by Hastings District Council to protect the integrity of Hawke's Bay's edible produce because, says the minister - and Federated Farmers too - this denies farmers "choice" in how they use their land.

Expect a law change to stop such zones spreading; they're already going around the law by bringing in national standards regulations for forestry that allow genetically modified trees to be planted regardless of what a local council may say, thus compromising the whole concept of a GM-Free zone.

Supporting the minority 10 per cent of locals who want to be free to plant GE will fundamentally affect the livelihood of the 90 per cent who don't want a bar of it seems a funny way to run a democracy.

Speaking of trees, the RMA has just been changed to remove the ability of a council to have any sort of blanket rules on tree protection in its district. The only protection a tree can now be afforded is if it goes through a lengthy process to be categorised as "significant".

We like to pride ourselves on the "greenness" of our urban areas, but no sooner had this change come in than Auckland Council's own environmental department was in effect telling its citizens they were now free to get out the chainsaws and go berserk on any exotic or native they wanted felled.

How many "significant" trees will be gone before they're even considered as such? And how drab and bare will our cities soon be as a result.

Then there are the indigenous animals that form part of our unique biodiversity yet are paid no mind when it comes to making commercial decisions.

Granting oil companies the right to do seismic testing in offshore zones inhabited by the critically endangered Maui's and Hector's dolphins, and on the main migration routes for several species of whale, insults the very idea of conservation.

Worse is the parlous state of our inland waterways, where 74 per cent of native freshwater fish, mussel, and crab species are now in danger of extinction. Mainly, says a biodiversity report from the Society for Conservation Biology, because of pollution - urban and rural - and water extraction.

The report argues that declining freshwater quality is the country's primary environmental issue, and that Government plans for intensification of agriculture will only exacerbate the problems.

Surely the ignorant and obnoxious plunder of our natural assets for commercial gain must cease, else our grandchildren will wonder why this was ever known as God's Own Country.

That's the right of it.

•Bruce Bisset is a freelance writer and poet.