Dialogue: Conservation estate not locked up in any way

By PETE HODGSON*

"Locking up" our native forests is not the same as conserving them, wrote Terry Dunleavy, of the National Party's Bluegreens, in a Dialogue page article.

It is pleasing to see somebody associated with National grasping this fact at last. But it is disappointing that somebody offering political advice on conservation issues is so ill-informed about modern conservation management.

Mr Dunleavy is right that conservation requires more than leaving native forests "entirely to their own devices." But he is wrong in implying that is all the Department of Conservation does. The department is constantly improving its management strategies. A huge effort and millions of dollars are devoted to pest and weed control, predator control, threatened species protection, visitor facilities and the maintenance or enhancement of biodiversity.

On the West Coast, the department spends $1.8 million a year on pest control. It has indicated that it would spend $120,000 a year controlling pests and weeds in the Timberlands West Coast native forests if it were managing them. Timberlands has spent $66,000.

The department provides extensive access and facilities to conservation land for recreational and economic uses. It maintains tracks, roads, huts, picnic areas and visitor centres. It provides a huge amount of information. It provides and manages access for mining, grazing, tourism operators, electricity lines and sphagnum moss collection. Walking, climbing, skiing, sightseeing, kayaking, rafting and caving companies do business with the conservation estate every day.

Claims that the conservation estate is "locked up" economically or in the way it is maintained are simplistic and misleading. It would make as much sense if city property developers started complaining that Auckland's public parks had been "locked up" by local authorities.

Mr Dunleavy suggests the Government has no understanding of the role of sustainability in economic development, particularly in forestry. Again he is ill-informed. Private owners of native forest retain every right to log their land sustainably, under the Forests Act. Approved sustainable logging plans and permits provide for a harvest of about 58,000 cubic metres a year, almost double Timberlands' recent rimu volumes.

Most of those permits have not been enacted, in large part because of the difficulty of competing with a state-supported supplier. As Timberlands' native logging is phased out, these private providers will step in to meet demand.

The Government's policy on native logging is in favour of conservation, not against sustainable management. There were questions about whether Timberlands' plans were genuinely sustainable, but ultimately that was not the issue. The question was whether the Government, as owner of the Timberlands native forests, was prepared to log them - by whatever means.

Only 7 per cent of New Zealand's original lowland native forest cover survives, and the Timberlands' forests are a significant part of that. Private owners may make their own decisions, but the Labour Party decided in favour of protecting all remaining Crown-managed native forest. So did the Alliance and the Greens.

But we must look beyond native-forest logging. The Government's commitment to sustainable management must be considered on more than a single issue.

Take, for example, the biodiversity strategy, which aims to sustain our terrestrial, freshwater and marine native species diversity. In this year's Budget, the Government committed $187 million over the next five years to implement programmes to put the strategy into practice.

Then there is the sustainable farming fund. More than $5 million is available this year for grants in support of sustainable land management initiatives for rural communities.

Another area to look at would be fisheries. Our quota management system is undergoing continual refinement. The Government is starting public consultation on more effective and efficient ways to manage aquaculture and recreational fishing.

And it would be impossible to ignore the fact that sustainable management of the marine environment as a whole is the focus of the oceans policy process, a huge exercise in integrating our management of a resource that is governed by at least 18 pieces of domestic legislation and 14 departments or agencies of the state. It is the most significant public policy project concerned with sustainable resource management since Sir Geoffrey Palmer's resource management law reform.

Anyone seriously examining the Government's approach to resource policy will see an appreciation of the importance of genuine sustainability far outweighing that of any previous Administration.

* Pete Hodgson is the Minister of Forestry.