Tourism best use of beech forests?

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33060, 30 October 1972, Page 3

Tourism best use of beech forests?

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, October 29.

Tourism based on the West Coast beech forests as they now are would be more beneficial than using them for chip and pulp and conversion to exotic forests.

This suggestion is one of the points made by the national alliance of conservation organisations, Coenco, in letters to the Minister for the Environment (Mr MacIntyre).

Coenco has released to the press copies of letters sent to the Minister on a Forest Service plan to use beech forests, on raising Lake Manapouri, and on a report of Japanese interest in the production of heavy water at Broadlands.

Coenco said the economics of the Forest Service proposals to use the beech were far from clear and not necessarily of benefit to New Zealand.

“For long-term wood pulp production there are other areas of New Zealand where the economic margin is much greater,” the letter said. “Beech is probably of more value to New Zealand as our sole surviving economic hardwood which is regenerable.” A proposal to use a significant proportion of indigenous forest and convert it to exotics was a major proposal which should be undertaken only after research in breadth and depth—on long-term and

short-term effects, economic viability, and ecological, sociological, geographical and commercial matters. “Coenco maintains that it is far beyond the resources of the "orest Service, and also undesirable and unacceptable for the service itself to carry out such research, and that in fact such research has not been done adequately. ROYAL COMMISSION “Coenco therefore renews its call for the entire proposals to be halted until a properly-qualified, widelywarranted Royal Commission has reported on all the aspects of the scheme after the necessary research has been done.” The forests selected were generally lowland forests where most birds lived, so the total number of birds affected was much greater than the proportion of total forest, the organisation said. In another letter to Mr Maclntyre Coenco asked for a public statement about the electricity proposals for Lake Manapouri and Lake Te Anau. The letter asked for information on the Government’s policy if alternative acceptable power could be provided elsewhere, the Government’s definition of “acceptable,” the steps taken to find such alternative power, and the results of surveys done or the progress made on them. “Would the Government publish the reports of the official committees and the research group?” Coenco said that if there were a surplus of cheap electric power anywhere in New Zealand, it should be used to prevent any interference with the levels of the two lakes. If the Government did not use every source of cheap

power available to obviate raising Manapouri and Te Anau, then “grave doubts must be cast on the assurances already given by the Government, the Prime Minister and yourself,” the letter said.

If extra cheap power remained after the requirements for saving Manapouri and Te Anau had been met, the power should be used for the domestic consumer and New Zealand-owned industry to help hold down the cost of power. The Minister had said domestic appliances might someday be sacrificed for want of power. If this were true, it was mandatory on the Government to sell no more power to foreign interests, Coenco said, referring to the Japanese interest in using cheap power from Broadlands for the production of heavy water.

Mr Maclntyre thanked Coenco for the letters, agreed that wide dissemination of all the facts was important, and said he would inform the group of any of his statements that might interest it before its conference on November 11. He would also give his comments on the points it had made.