Purchase or pressure — options for private forest protection

Forest and Bird, Volume 18, Issue 3, 1 August 1987, Page 12

Purchase or pressure — options for private forest protection

Dr

Conservation

Director

Gerry McSweeney,

I: purchase the best way to protect native forest on private land? To judge from the increasing number of requests coming to our Head Office, it seems many people consider it is. Certainly it is a popular approach with many members who want to own bush areas and devote their energies to enhancing and protecting such places. Their work is acknowledged and important. However the Society's executive do not generally share this enthusiasm for bush purchase and believe a range of incentives is needed to encourage nature protection on private land. These will be more equitable, far more costeffective and not burden our members with huge fund-raising tasks and ongoing management costs. Without infringing private property rights much more could be done to discourage private land forest destruction:

native forests and natural areas generally should be recognised as matters of national importance under the Planning Act and protection encouraged through district schemes. the Rating Act should be amended so that land not being used for commercial purposes, and therefore not requiring local authority services, will not be rateable while it is not being used (rating of nonused land creates financial pressures for logging and/or clearance). greater financial incentives such as fencing assistance, leasing arrangements through the Conservation Department and Catchment Authorities are needed. the proposed Nga Whenua Rahui (land protection) scheme involving land exchange or leasing for conservation purposes on Maori land

deserves government funding. @ the Protected Natural Areas programme — identifying and protecting representative habitats and ecosystems — should be accelerated to provide guidance in setting protection priorities. The problem that confronts us is enormous. Although there are no longer incentives to clear bush for pasture or pines, the rural downturn has seen logging and woodchipping on private land jump to unprecedented levels. Thousands of hectares are being destroyed each year. Native timber exports have increased twenty-fold in the last year. The Society's executive views the thousands of dollars spent on bush purchase as being better spent in lobbying the Government over the above options. We aim to do this by increasing our small staff. Private bush protection will

be the highest priority in 1987/88 for our new Northern conservation officer and staff generally. We need to put pressure on big logging companies still clearing forest; we need to liaise with the Maori community and local authorities. Ote Makura provides a good example of this. Obviously there will be times when bush purchase is the only option, such as very important areas where all other options are unsuccessful. However, such fund raising campaigns set dangerous precedents. They can inflate the value of bush remnants and excuse the Government from taking effective action. Free marketeers will adopt the attitude that because conservationists can afford to buy bush, that is the best solution to the problem. We must resist this line of argument. There is a better way.