Drylands reserve plans axed

A proposal to create a future drylands reserve park in the Mackenzie Basin has been cast aside.

DOC Tenure review manager Mike Clare said the proposal – which would have turned more than 30,000 hectares of land into a permanent reserve – has been ruled out indefinitely, as the department faces budget restrictions.

"We are facing a departmental cut of more than $50 million over the next three years, which means we will have to be a bit more cautious and pragmatic," he said. "We may not be able to acquire and maintain as much land as we might have hoped when economic times were good."

Mr Clare said the proposal was one of several suggested, as the department observed "radical" change to the Basin, and an increase in irrigation proposals.

However, DOC now had to focus on the process of tenure review, which began in the 1990s under the Land Review Act as some farmers refused access to protected areas

"There were some areas of land which would have been too expensive for us to maintain. We are already spending millions of dollars to clear wilding pines and hyraceum in the region."

Aoraki Conservation Board chairman Steven Lowndes said it was unfortunate the proposal had been cast aside.

"I think the writing was on the wall early last year when the government said the economy trumps the environment.

"DOC is a governmental department, so it has its responsibilities, but I am wary that its advisers will be on a collision course with governmental direction. There is a need to ensure the protection of the region's biodiversity, and you have two of the smallest territorial authorities – the Waitaki District Council and the Mackenzie District Council – dealing with areas of great environmental concern."

Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Jan Wright said issues surrounding the Mackenzie Basin had become "increasingly complex".

Mr Lowndes said the Upper Waitaki hearings, which consider more than 126 consent applications to take water in the Mackenzie Basin and Upper Waitaki, covering more than 27,000 hectares of land, raised several "burgeoning issues".

She recommended the creation of a High Country Commission.

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