R.M.A. Saves Forest Remnants
— ANN GRAEME
magine this: along the highway there is an patch of regenerating native forest you admire every time you drive by. It is a remnant of the once extensive forest that has been cleared for farming in your district and has been designated as a Recommended Area for Protection. When you learn the owner has applied to clear-fell the forest for pasture what can you do? This was the scenario in the ‘Pineridge Case’. Near Gisborne, a landowner applied to the District Council to clear-fell native forest which
was designated as a Recommended Area for Protection, or RAP. Forest and Bird and the Department of Conservation objected on the grounds that, despite its scruffy appearance, peppered with wilding pines, the regenerating lowland forest was significant because it was scarce in the district, and had therefore been selected as a Recommended Area for Protection. Despite their objections, the District Council granted a consent to clear-fell the forest. Forest and Bird and DoC didn’t give up. Together they lodged
an appeal against the decision to the Environment Court. The Court ruled that the Council was in the wrong. By granting the clear-felling application the Council had misinterpreted the Resource Management Act. The Council’s decision not only spelled destruction to the forest but would open the way to clearfelling other regenerating forest, and nullify the status of the RAP designation. The Court revoked the District Council’s decision and refused the clearfelling application. The judgement recognised
that this was ‘an area of significant indigenous vegetation’ and as such should be protected under section 6(c) of the Resource Management Act. This decision was important, not just because it protected that particular forest, but because it confirmed the significance of the RAP designation. It may set a useful precedence for you to use.
(The Forest and Bird people involved were Linda Conning, Basil Graeme and Kate Mitcalfe. The decision reference number is A16/2000.)
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/FORBI20011101.2.41.6
Bibliographic details
Forest and Bird, Issue 302, 1 November 2001, Page 41
Word Count
322R.M.A. Saves Forest Remnants Forest and Bird, Issue 302, 1 November 2001, Page 41
Using This Item
For material that is still in copyright, Forest & Bird have made it available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC 4.0). This periodical is not available for commercial use without the consent of Forest & Bird. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this magazine please refer to our copyright guide.
Forest & Bird has made best efforts to contact all third-party copyright holders. If you are the rights holder of any material published in Forest & Bird's magazine and would like to discuss this, please contact Forest & Bird at editor@forestandbird.org.nz
Log in