by Kevin Hague
One of the cool things about staying in Wellington over the weekend occasionally has been visiting the Karori Sanctuary. Wellingtonians will already be very familiar with it, but others will be interested to know that the sanctuary comprises 225Ha of regenerating lowland forest and wetland in a valley above the suburb of Karori, including Wellington’s original water-supply reservoirs. The Sanctuary was developed by a Trust formed in 1995, and is one of New Zealand’s most important “mainland islands”, protected by a 8.6km predator-proof fence.
We visited for the first time last year, and really enjoyed the glimpse of prehistoric New Zealand it gave us, with a wider range of birds than I have ever come across tramping (and tuatara!) Since humans arrived in this country forest cover has been reduced from nearly 80% to less than 30%, and at least 45 species of birds (40%) have become extinct. The Sanctuary Trust has a 500 year vision to return the Valley to as close as possible to its state the day before people arrived here.
We visited again today, partly to take a look at the new Visitors’ Centre, opened by the Prime Minister this week. Modern museums have set a high standard for exhibitions (the sub-Antarctic Islands display at the Invercargill Museum is a personal favourite) but the new exhibition at the Sanctuary surpasses all our previous museum experiences. We found it an emotional roller coaster: sadness and shame at the chronicle of the biodiversity we have lost, then gratitude for the pioneers of conservation (Tuwheretoa, Guthrie-Smith, Moncrieff, Cockayne and others), and pride to be part of a conservation activist tradition.
My partner and I both left the exhibition profoundly affected by it, and with one thought uppermost in our minds: how could Prime Minister John Key, who opened the Centre last week, have such a profoundly different emotional response and sense of identity as a New Zealander, that he did not immediately move to cancel his plans to mine in National Parks and other Schedule 4 public conservation land?
With his Prime Ministerial statement to open Parliament this year referring to his Government’s priorities for the environment as “Unlocking Resources” he reveals a mindset completely at odds with the heroic conservationist efforts celebrated through Zealandia. I wonder if he mentioned to the people at the opening his opinion and policy that conserving and restoring the environment had to be compromised in order to achieve GDP growth?
Published in Environment & Resource Management by Kevin Hague on Sun, April 4th, 2010
Tags: Kevin Hague
More posts by Kevin Hague | more about Kevin Hague
on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
Like or Dislike:
10 
2 (+8)
And it takes Bronagh forever to fit his hairpiece in the morning before sending him of to the Hive.
He’s just so fiddly, leaping from cloud to cloud, a’flippin’ and a’floppin’!
Like or Dislike:
4 
2 (+2)
The concept of community, and commons resources are quite hard to understand form this paradigm, unless they make money from tourists or for big business.
Like or Dislike:
4 
1 (+3)
Nicely put McTap.
So we’re not to expect any progress on ‘the common good’, except as a by-product of wealth acquisition by the wealthy, while Key is in power, I take it.
Like or Dislike:
2 
1 (+1)
Furthermore ‘the system’ is designed to enable private appropriation of public rights and resources.
Why is it so hard to apply the polluter pays principle?
Why is it so easy to tax wage earners, yet so easy for the elite to avoid tax?
Like or Dislike:
3 
1 (+2)
Quite the opposite as we are seeing greenfly – they may only have three years in the hotseat, so they will make the most of them. And there is no real effective ‘opposition’.
Like or Dislike:
1 
1 (0)
That’s not to say we’re stuffed – common pool resource management regimes have proven to be successes under some conditions: a small geographical area with well defined boundaries, low levels of mobility, a small community with a high degree of social capital, and an overlap between residential and resource use location.
Perhaps this picture might fit for a small country of 4 million?
Like or Dislike:
1 
0 (+1)
Hard to read whether you’re opti or pessi (mistic) McTap.
Perhaps pragmatic?
Any suggestions for any would-be opposition?
Like or Dislike:
1 
0 (+1)
I have been sceptical about the new large building at the wildlife sanctuary, and it’s touristy new name.
I’ll give it a chance
Like or Dislike:
1 
0 (+1)
Took an o/s visitor out there – an exquisitely beautiful spot.
He’s a highly educated ‘Wildlife Aficionado International’(left for Toledo the next day) and last time I went it wasn’t fenced off and didn’t cost.
Ah the price of progress.
Instead I took him through the Historic sites in the Pauatahanui Valley -winding up with a stunning view of the Homes of Te Rangiheata and Te Rauparaha – with a lengthy historical discourse from yours truly.
Hard to impress an Oxford Grad. but he (we) had a fabulous time!
Check it out I say.
Like or Dislike:
1 
0 (+1)
Uhm yeah. Been up too the far end of the sanctuary a few times. News flash: It’s full of gorse. Gorse.
Gorse.
Personally I go there to connect with nature, in the form of kaka, saddlebacks, kawakawa and such. Five minutes in the forest are worth more to me than five days in a museum.
They could have spent those millions on growing more native forest, providing more habitat for native birds, geckos and so on.
Someone has decided that it’s better to spend those millions on a building.
And, I’ve had bad experiences with getting replies by email from here … I’ll give it a go but when I get a troll post I’ll unsubscribe.
Like or Dislike:
0 
2 (-2)