Government's plan to earmark areas of natural significance labelled 'theft by the Crown' by farmer

Monday, 25 November 2019

A major new plan to enhance protection of native species – 4000 of which are now under threat or risk of extinction – has been unveiled by the Government.

A leak of the announcement sparked concern from some West Coasters after it was suggested a chunk of private land in the region could be categorised as significant natural areas (SNAs) with new controls on development.

One West Coast farmer labelled it 'theft by the Crown', while Westland's mayor called for affected landowners to be compensated.

Councils will be required to identify areas with significant indigenous biodiversity under a proposed new National Policy Statement.

The draft National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity (NPSIB) sets out how councils can help restore indigenous biodiversity and halt further decline.

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Associate Environment Minister Nanaia Mahuta has released a discussion document on indigenous biodiversity for public consultation.

'In the 750 years since humans arrived here, more than 50 native bird species have been made extinct, three frogs, at least three lizards, one freshwater fish, four plants and an unknown number of invertebrate species,' Associate Environment Minister Nanaia Mahuta said.

'Today 4000 of our native plants and wildlife are threatened or at risk of extinction.'

She said the policy statement was needed because the Resource Management Act had not given councils clear enough direction.

The proposal would require councils to identify and protect areas where there is significant vegetation and indigenous fauna.

It is understood 15 per cent of private land on the West Coast would be defined as being a significant natural area (SNA) under the policy.

The Westland District Council has not yet mapped out any SNAs, but the Grey District Council has already confirmed 37 sites, each with an average size of 74.12 hectares. It faced significant opposition when it began to set SNAs in the 2000s. The Hutt City Council abandoned its plans to identify such areas in 2018.

Westland mayor Bruce Smith says enforcing significant natural areas on private landowners is 'just wrong'.

Westland farmer Arthur Thomson said his family had owned 500ha in Ross, south of Hokitika, for about 80 years.

'We have a lot of rubbish swampy land that is in it's natural state. I'm better than DOC at looking after it. But I could dig it up for gold maybe,' he said.

He expected half of it would be classified as a SNA and he believed he would not be able to get resource consent to do anything on it.

'It's theft by the Crown and a form of communism – that's what they're doing.'

Westland mayor Bruce Smith said farms that had been in families since the pioneer days could be essentially 'locked up'.

He believed the policy would mean landowners could not develop their land and property values would plummet, leaving some deep in debt and without the ability to use their land productively.

'These people still have to pay rates on the land … It's terribly wrong. They should write them out a cheque,' Smith said.

West Coast Regional Council chief executive Michael Meehan said a resource consent could still be granted for a SNA.

'It depends on what they want to do with it. There will be set criteria that we will have to assess and if they can be mitigated then potentially they can do what they want to do. It's not an automatic no.'

SNAs had been an issue for 15 years, but the new policy would give councils consistent criteria and a timeframe, he said.

He expected existing operations would be allowed to continue, like grazing and sphagnum moss collecting. The regional council had already helped landowners sell land that had been identified as SNAs or wetlands through the Department of Conservation's Nature Heritage Fund, which aims to protect high value ecosystems. Much of the affected land was difficult to develop anyway, he said.

Federated Farms environment spokesman Chris Allen said they would be examining the policy to see how it would affect places like Canterbury's high country farms.

Federated Farmers had been part of the Biodiversity Collaborative Group consulted on the proposal.

'The intention was if you've being doing it in the past you should be able to, within certain restrictions … carry on doing it.

'We will be looking with keen interest as to where the Government has got to,' he said.

Forest and Bird's Jen Millar said she welcomed the discussion document because New Zealand was losing its indigenous biodiversity at an 'alarming rate'.

'It's 20 years too late but we feel really pleased,' she said.

The policy would give councils clearer rules on how to protect significant indigenous vegetation and landowners would have limits on what they could do with their land if it was designated an SNA, she said.

The SNAs will be drawn up by councils in consultation with landowners and qualified ecologists.

Submissions close on March 14. Councils will have until 2026 to map out their SNAs and until 2028 to implement the policy.