Farming Joint-Ventures Make Conservation Dollars Go Further

Forest and Bird, Issue 314, 1 November 2004, Page 27

Farming Joint-Ventures Make Conservation Dollars Go Further

Two other joint-venture deals involving the Crown and private owners in the high country have taken place in the past 12 months. In both cases, farming areas were separated from conservation and recreation spots in a partnership with private purchasers of former Crown leases. Those properties are Clent Hills in the Ashburton Lakes high country — in future to be known as Lake Heron — and the Poplars Station near Lewis Pass in North Canterbury. Forest and Bird’s national president, Dr Gerry McSweeney, who has himself been a member of the advisory Nature Heritage Fund since 1990, believes the process of jointventuring, between farmers and conservation, will help the Government’s limited protection dollars go much further than before. ‘With rapidly escalating prices for this kind of land such partnerships help considerably; Dr McSweeney says. "Having a willing farmer-partner enables the Fund to recommend spending money on the land it really wants for conservation and recreation while helping farmers run their enterprises more economically on the modified farmland. ‘The farmers’ conservation responsibilities do not cease with the purchase, he says. "There remain conservation values on the farmland areas which they continue to value and protect. The farmer also remains a close neighbour and guardian of the conservation area.’ In addition to the joint-ventures, further high-country reserves have been secured for the public this year by the ‘whole-property purchase’ of Birchwood Station in North Otago (see Forest & Bird, May 2004), and an area of Canaan Downs on the Takaka Hill entirely surrounded by Abel Tasman National Park. The four high-country runs which make up the huge Crown-owned Molesworth property in Marlborough will also be passed into conservation management next year (see Forest & Bird, August 2004).