District Rules Can Protect the Environment

Forest and Bird, Issue 314, 1 November 2004, Page 42

District Rules Can Protect the Environment

— Source,

ANN GRAEME

orest and Bird is keen to see every District Council in New Zealand adopt rules to control the destruction of significant areas of native biodiversity, writes Ann Graeme of Tauranga on behalf of the Society’s conservation staff. ‘I know everyone hates rules but sometimes they are necessary to make things work; she says. ‘While we support environmental education incentives like rates relief and money for fencing, to encourage landowners to protect their special places, we also know that an entirely voluntary approach is not enough. It still leads to forests cleared from steep slopes, streams burdened with sediment and wetlands drained. In Northland, thousands of hectares of kiwi scrublands were roller-crushed for pine planting because the Far North District Plan did not contain any vegetation clearance rules. So, for a decade now, Forest and Bird has been putting in submissions on District Plans, asking for limits on landowners’ ability to destroy significant natural areas. This is in line with the Resource Management Act which recognizes that protecting ‘significant indigenous vegetation and significant habitats of indigenous fauna’ is a matter of national importance, and obliges local authorities to make due provision in their plans.

Introducing a rule about vegetation clearance does not usually mean that clearance is forbidden. It means that a resource consent application is required and the Council must decide whether the activity applied for is appropriate, or whether alternatives or conditions would reduce its effect. From the conservation point of view, this is a vast improvement over the unconsidered and unchecked destruction of the past. Of the 77 council districts in New Zealand, 72 now have vegetation rules in their plans. Most vegetation clearance rules began or were enhanced by Forest and Bird submissions. Some, in the face of intransigent Councils, had to be pursued and negotiated through the Environment Court. Our most recent successes have been with the district councils of Dunedin, Grey and Thames/ Coromandel, and they have been hard-won. It has been a hard grind, participating in daunting legal processes, talking and talking with farmers and council staff and waiting in cold courtrooms for a turn to be heard, but this work by our staff and our members is setting the ground rules which will safeguard the environment for generations to come.