DoC puts new marine reserves on hold to meet budget cuts

More than 23,000 hectares of possum control will not go ahead. Photo / Rotorua Daily Post

New marine reserves have been delayed and possum, deer and weed control pared back so that the Department of Conservation can meet budget cuts.

The department has to shave $54 million - $13.5 million a year - from spending over the next four years, after its funding was cut in the Budget.

Figures show one of the major savings is a slimmed-down pest control scheme.

More than 23,000ha - an area about the size of Abel Tasman national park - of planned possum control will not go ahead, nor will 105,000ha of goat culling, 41,000ha of weed treatment and 28,000ha of deer control. The cuts represent about 7 per cent of what was planned for each pest.

In Auckland, efforts to save $235,000 have stalled plans to expand the country's network of marine reserves.

Under the Biodiversity Strategy (2000) New Zealand was to protect 10 per cent of its marine environment by 2010. The plan was to shield rare and outstanding areas, as well as a representative slice of each ecosystem.

However, only two regional forums - fishers, Maori and local people that recommend new areas for protection - are up and running, one for the South Island's West Coast and another for the sub-antarctic islands.

Auckland's forum was to be the third. DoC spokesman Rory Newsam said two people would have been hired to help with the process but those jobs had been scrapped. DoC would have paid for the regional forum and organised it with the Ministry of Fisheries.

Referring to the national cost savings, Mr Newsam said most would come from the budgets for natural heritage (which includes pest control) and recreational opportunities (which includes tramping tracks, huts and visitor centres). Natural heritage would lose $6.1 million a year and recreation $2.8 million, he said.