Editorial: MP making a point in mangroves

Coromandel MP Sandra Goudie has drawn attention to something important by actively supporting a group of Whangamata residents who have taken chainsaws to the mangroves steadily taking over their harbour. She is, of course, sailing very close to the wind even by helping to stack the plants that others removed in defiance of the law. She is a member of the Parliament that makes our law and ought to do nothing that could suggest law may be selectively obeyed. She would no doubt condemn Green MPs, for example, if they supported ecological vigilantism against genetic experiments. Much as she might sympathise with constituents' frustration at the costly procedures of the Resource Management Act, her duty is to see that they observe it until her colleagues are in a position to change it.

The election-night result did not leave her much hope that they will soon be in that position and the next day she was out with the chainsaw gang, warning the regional council, Environment Waikato, that it will have a fight on its hands if it lays charges against her or any of the 120 people intent on reclaiming the harbour for human enjoyment. The council has no stomach for the fight. "We would rather work with our ratepayers than get into a conflict situation," said Environment Waikato spokesman Hugh Keane.

It sounds very much as though the council would now happily consider a resource consent - and quickly - if the residents would apply for it. They would face opposition - Whangamata is said to be divided on the issue - but the applicants might not again face the $17,000 they say it cost them to obtain consent to clear a small area of mangroves two years ago.

The problem they have raised is bigger than one consent application, or one area of coastline. Their action, like the close election result, is more evidence that many people have lost patience with political correctness. It is not that such people are completely insensitive to the principles and values that now rule their lives, but they feel the pendulum has swung too far. At Whangamata they have been watching mangroves steadily take over areas where they could once swim and sail.

Mangroves, they are told, play a very important role in the estuarine ecosystem. The plants trap silt and mud, thereby helping to prevent coastal erosion by protecting the shore from waves. Environment Waikato attributes their spread to increased nutrient levels in the water caused by farm fertiliser and effluent run-off, with global warming, coastal urbanisation and better control of livestock that used to trample plants in estuary areas.

This explanation concedes that mangroves are not the natural condition of many of the coastal inlets they have visually destroyed. If their presence can be blamed on human influences such as pollutants from farming, residential development and even global warming, the case for preserving them is not as strong as it might be if they were vital to the marine ecosystem.

There is no guarantee, the council says, that removing the mangroves will disperse the accumulated mud that allowed them to become established. Maybe not, but Whangamata harbour users are willing to try and it is hard to blame them. If they find they must not only clear the mangroves but have the harbour dredged, so be it. Marine ecosystems are important but so is human enjoyment, both visual and active. The rate that mangroves are spreading on northern coasts these days, human clearances are unlikely to keep pace. But where a community is sufficiently organised and determined to reclaim their foreshore, let it happen.