Brian Rudman: It's just a report ... but at least it's proof of life

When it comes to protecting the treasure that is the Hauraki Gulf, no one could accuse Aucklanders of rushing things.

It's taken nearly 40 years to come up with the first "state of the environment report" on the gulf. Prepared by the Hauraki Gulf Forum, it includes a stock take of what the statutory agencies are doing in response to the "issues" raised.

Laly Haddon, chairman of the forum, admits that no primary research was commissioned in the report's preparation, but says it's the first time information has been culled from academic and official files and assembled into one comprehensive document.

All of which is confirmation, if it were needed, that familiarity, as far as the gulf is concerned, breeds, if not contempt, then at best a big yawn. Which is our shame and our loss, given that there are few other cities in the world blessed with a front door marine playground to match ours.

The ongoing saga to stop harbour ferries squirting their loads of sewage into the waters of the park is proof of our casual attitude.

With no new research, there are no surprises in the 224-page tome, but it is great to have all this information assembled in one encyclopaedic volume.

There's everything from a rundown on the Long Bay dune restoration project to the news that thanks to coastal erosion and global warning, my home could be 8m closer to the waterfront in 100 years.

Seems a shame I won't be around to reap the capital gain.

Mr Haddon asks for tolerance for any perceived shortcomings in the report, saying the forum will try better when it produces a second report in three years.

To me, the shortcomings don't lie in the report, but in the fact that a report is about all we Aucklanders seem capable of coming up with in our quest to protect the unique gulf environment.

It's not as though we've been short of time. The first recognition of it being a special place goes back to the Crown purchase of Little Barrier Island as a bird sanctuary in 1894. In 1967, in response to growing human pressures on the gulf islands, the Government created the Hauraki Gulf Maritime Park, a sort of amphibious twin of the mainland national parks. The thrust was about Government departments protecting the native flora and fauna from human encroachment.

Leap forward to 2000 and the passage of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park Act. This came at the conclusion of a decade-long struggle by environmentalists to broaden the concept of the park from just being about protecting the native birds and the trees.

The wording of the act brought new broadness to the meaning of holistic. It waxed lyrical about "the interrelationship between the Hauraki Gulf, its islands and catchments and the ability of that interrelationship to sustain the life-supporting capacity of the environment".

The life-supporting capacity encompassed "the social, economic, recreational and cultural well-being of people and communities" and, lest you think the birds and the trees missed out, the gulf was also to be managed "to maintain the soil, air, water and ecosystems of the gulf".

The area to be managed includes not just the gulf's islands and waters, but the lands that drain into the gulf and the western Bay of Plenty.

Perhaps it's little wonder that, charged with the above God-like responsibilities, those in local and national Government with the job of making the 2000 act work, gave a collective "whew" and did nothing.

Mike Lee, chairman of the ARC and a campaigner for kick-starting the legislation into action, despairingly observes there's not even a sign board to be seen proclaiming the marine park's existence.

Amid all this inaction, the Gulf Forum's report is at least a glimmer of hope that the park concept lives.

The forum was set up in 1996 by the Auckland Regional Council. It became incorporated into the park management structure by the 2000 act, charged with, among other things, producing three-yearly reports.

What we really need is not reports, but some evidence of the act being taken seriously. And by that, I mean more than the erection of a sign or two.