Oil drives plans to mine parks

BY DAVID WILLIAMS

The Government is considering reversing a ban on mining to allow oil exploration in New Zealand's last great wilderness area, Fiordland.

A Ministry of Economic Development (MED) report released to the Green Party under the Official Information Act proclaims the "significant mineral potential" in the Fiordland, Kahurangi and Paparoa national parks.

The Waitutu area of the Fiordland National Park had sufficient petroleum reserves to be "worthy" of inclusion in a review of conservation land protected from mining, officials said. The report also identifies the Coromandel Peninsula as a possible source of gold and silver.

Yesterday, Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee would not rule out mining in national parks, but stood by his earlier comments that mining would most likely happen only on land of low conservation value.

The views of MED officials in the July report have horrified environmentalists.

The Green Party said the Government was planning "mining madness" on the country's most precious conservation land.

The report urged a review, now under way, of schedule four of the Crown Minerals Act, which bans mining access to 13 per cent of New Zealand's land, including the highest-value conservation areas.

Greens co-leader Metiria Turei said the MED report "outed" the Government's intention to mine the country's most precious parks.

Fiordland National Park, which attracts more than half a million visitors a year, is the country's largest and a Unesco world heritage area.

"Considering mining in Fiordland is a national disgrace," she said. "The conservation minister [Tim Groser] will not even rule out considering Milford Sound – New Zealand's tourism hot spot – in the stocktake when I asked him.

"It's outrageous. The New Zealand public is alarmed at this mining madness, and will not stand idly by."

Environmental Defence Society chairman Gary Taylor said national parks should be sacrosanct.

"They're our most precious areas and private companies should not be given concessions to mine there," he said.

"Low-grade" conservation land might be appropriate for mining, but any review should assess ecological values of the land and not the potential economic wealth gained from extracting the minerals below.

Southland District Mayor Frana Cardno said the prospect of the Fiordland National Park being ripped up was horrifying.

"I think we have to preserve it ... not go carving it up for mining."

The Tuatapere Hump Track Charitable Trust runs a popular three-day tramp through part of the Fiordland wilderness.

Trust chairman Don Brown said the national park was owned by all New Zealanders. He understood why the Government might want to exploit petroleum but he was not totally agreeable to the idea: "I don't want to see the landscape disfigured."

MED officials said the removal of access prohibitions under schedule four to areas with significant mineral potential could contribute "considerably" to regional and national economic development.

Areas within the Coromandel Peninsula, Kahurangi, Waitutu (in Fiordland) and eastern Paparoa were worthy of inclusion in such a review, they said.

DOC officials said there were few places listed in schedule four where mining would be considered appropriate. Mining in areas such as the Coromandel Peninsula or Kahurangi National Park would likely provoke "strong negative reaction" in the community.

Brownlee said the Government review would be sensitive to public opinion.

He did not rule out mining in national parks, but said it was "less likely".

"The important thing is we do get a balance between the opportunities that some mineral extraction may present, and of course those very high intrinsic values that we have inside the conservation estate," he said.

"The document simply acknowledges what we've already said publicly. We don't anticipate wholesale mining inside national parks."

The majority of land protected in schedule four would remain, he said, but some areas designated as having high conservation value may lose that designation after the review.

MED officials are expected to present their review findings to Brownlee and Groser by October 30.

- © Fairfax NZ News