by Eugenie Sage
I’m heading down to the Denniston Plateau this weekend for Forest and Bird’s BioBlitz of the area, as part of their wider campaign to Save the Denniston Plateau. The Denniston Plateau is a upland wonderland of wetlands, streams and ancient rock, home to many unique native species including the great spotted kiwi, green geckos, ground weta, bonsai rata and the giant carnivorous land snails Powelliphanta. New species are continuously being discovered in this rare and special ecosystem within New Zealand which is on public conservation land. It also happens to be sitting on a large deposit of coal that an Australian mining company Bathurst Resources would like to get their hands on. Bathurst have a resource consent to rip open the landscape with a 200ha open pit coal mine, similar to what has happened on the neighbouring Stockton Plateau. The Environment Court has yet to hear appeals against the granting of RMA consents.
The BioBlitz this weekend is a gathering of pollination biologists, botanists, bryophyte experts, herpetologists, ornithologists and invertebrate specialists, as well as a hardy bunch of volunteers. Teams will head out onto the plateau, both day and night, to survey blocks of the area and record all the species of animal life encountered.
Despite Govenrment promises during the Schedule 4 debate to have public consultation on mining applications affecting conservation land, Minister Kate Wilkson has shrugged off requests for this to happen at Denniston.
Incredibly, local Department of Conservation staff have been forbidden from attending the BioBlitz, even in a private capacity! That is, staff of a government department with a mandate to ensure conservation of New Zealand’s lands are forbidden from participating in this conservation survey.
[Updated note: The Department has subsequently allowed staff to participate.]
DOC laments on their own website:
“As a result of major habitat loss in the past, many Powelliphanta populations are now restricted to tiny pockets of native bush, where they have a precarious toehold on existence.”
It’s entirely possible that new species of giant carnivorous land snails and earthworms will be discovered this weekend on Denniston Plateau. But if the Government continues to stop DOC from doing their job, and Bathurst Resources push ahead with their plans to mine such a unique ecosystem, further new species may well become extinct before we even get to discover them.
Published in Environment & Resource Management by Eugenie Sage on Fri, March 2nd, 2012
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on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
But isn’t the campaign designed to prevent change to Government policy to not mine Schedule 4 land?
Trevor.
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Trevor if I’m not mistaken this is not schedule 4 land. It should be of course.
Anyway this is news from weeks ago. Hello Greens are you reading the news at all?
And yes I’d go but the calendar clash really can’t be ignored.
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The Department of Conservation presumably hires people for the purpose of conservation. This survey is thus something DoC should be actively involved in, not prohibited from. If that makes government policy look bad, perhaps the government policy should be fixed.
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Coal? The criminal idiocy of these serial rapists of Mother Earth is indefensible. FEWAFS!
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“As public servants, it is inappropriate for DoC staff to be involved in an activity that forms part of a clearly stated campaign to change Government policy and we have simply reminded staff of this fact,” said Mr Newsam.”
Stated like this, this would prevent public servants joining the Labour Party. Since when have public servants been restricted in their private political activities? So long as the work they do is carried out according to the policies of the organisation they work for, what they get up to in their own time ain’t their employer’s business.
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