Conservation Comment: Sweeping changes proposed for national parks

Parts of Te Urewera Great Walk were closed for months following safety concerns as huts, bridges and boardwalks had deteriorated. Repairs have since been completed. Photo / Anne-Elise Smithson

New proposals call for an overhaul of our conservation estate, placing partnership with tangata whenua front and centre.
Some fear this change will weaken environmental protections. Iwi say it will end being excluded from ancestral relationships with the whenua. The independent Options Development Group report for DoC found that tangata whenua leaders see national parks as "gated areas where we are obstructed from our customary practices, locked out from decision-making and held back from continuing our relationship with sites of deep spiritual or cultural significance".

Radically, the report recommends a review of the ownership and classification of our conservation land – a third of our country. It proposes a greater say in conservation management for whanau, hapu, iwi and Maori organisations towards a shared vision that provides for "the maintenance, enhancement and sustainable use of whenua, moana, wai and the species that rely upon them".
It is the term "sustainable use" that has some feeling uneasy.

Environmental Defence Society chief executive Gary Taylor says integrating a Maori world view into conservation could be helpful for nature and an important cultural redress.
However, he stops short of supporting the call to allow customary harvest (should wildlife populations sustain it): "My cultural norms are offended by the idea of the cultural harvest of native birds. But in my head, I can see that if you've got an abundant supply, and it's important for Maori cultural values to take them, then ..." He doesn't finish his sentence.

Any conservationist can imagine a utopia in which once-threatened birds are so prolific they spill out from conservation areas and are numerous to the point of being a nuisance.
But how do we return to this abundance, last known centuries ago? Surely, science must trump human interests. Nature must come first.

The protection versus use debate is not new. This is an as-old-as-the-hills conflict that has divided indigenous peoples and conservationists globally. Yet, report co-author Aroha Mead cites other examples like Canada and Australia having realised that enabling indigenous people to own and manage public conservation land can aid biodiversity goals.

At the time DoC's report was released, I was tramping in Te Urewera, a breathtaking place that had its national park status removed in 2014 in favour of becoming a legal person (same as the Whanganui River) as part of Tuhoe's treaty settlement.

Poring over maps of the Lake Waikaremoana Track, the divide that has surfaced was evident. Confusing for visitors, at times there were different place names depending on which map you were viewing. The partnership between DoC and Tuhoe has not been smooth sailing, with the right hand not always aligned with the left. Huts fallen into disrepair are well reported. Iwi has so far opposed the use of 1080.

Parts of Te Urewera Great Walk were closed for months following safety concerns as huts, bridges and boardwalks had deteriorated. Repairs have since been completed. Photo / Anne-Elise Smithson

After setting up camp, a visit to the Tribal Office allayed visitors' anxieties about some missing online details about our trek. Our Tuhoe hosts chatted about their hopes for a different kind of visitor experience rather than adopting what already exists. One that is based on manuhiri deepening their connections to place and people. Shifting away from transactional relationships made at a click of a "book my hut" button, towards a lifelong bond with the homeland of Ngai Tuhoe, and with the people who call it home.

It is only through good relationships, after all, that Tuhoe community leaders successfully stopped people from setting up semi-permanent camps and polluting this immense, pristine space.

Law professor Jacinta Ruru sums up the situation with our national parks: "We can make it a good legacy if we're up to having some really good, considered, respectful conversations to try to deeply understand the Maori connection to the conservation estate ... actually enable what we all want, which is that these lands are going to be there for future generations."

• Anne-Elise Smithson is a keen hiker, environmentalist and Whanganui region enthusiast.
• Te Urewera was disestablished as a national park in 2014, as a result of the Ngai Tuhoe Treaty settlement, and is now administered by the Te Urewera Board, which comprises joint Tuhoe and Crown membership.