Conservation merger likely

Press, 28 October 1981, Page 25

Conservation merger likely

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

After much negotiation and argument it looks as if the long-running struggle to merge two of New Zealand’s most important conservation organisations — the Native Forests Action Council and the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society — will be approved at the society's half-yearly council meeting on November 7. A decision was deferred from the society’s June council meeting so that more work could be done on me merger proposal. Work done since then will certainly not satisfy everyone at the November meeting, but it should get sufficient support. The history of the merger is a strange one. The executive committee of the 33.000strong society has given the impression that it is more in sympathy with the aims and tactics of the 6000-strong action council. The merger was designed to promote Mr Guy Salmon of the action council into control of the bigger, wealthier, and more respectable society. The merger has been opposed on a variety of

grounds. Some do not like Mr Salmon: others prefer the society's more conservative record in conservation to the radical approach of the action council, others want to retain the present top executives, while having no objection to Mr Salmon.

At the June meeting, the merger did not go through in spite of the confidence of its supporters. The main reason for this failure then was that the merger supporters were not clear enough over who would be doing what within the merged structure to swing the waverers. These details now seemed to have been cleared up. Mr Salmon would remain at Nelson, the present headquarters of the action council, • but he and his five research assistants would become salaried officers of the society, on combined annual salaries of between $55,000 and $60,000. He would probably be responsible directly to the society’s national executive for forestry matters. The present national conservation officer, Mr David

Collingwood, would be retained by the society, but his job would be halved and he would be based in Wellington responsible directly to the national executive for birds. The present administrative officer (Mrs Olga Landford) would be retained in Wellington and stay directly responsible to the national executive. There were suggestions that once Mr Salmon’s salary

had been settled, Mr Collingwood should take a cut in his salary to be on the same footing as Mr Salmon. This is likely to be discarded as working to prejudice the chance of the merger package being accepted. Meanwhile, Mrs Langford is likely to have her salary increased to. be on a par with Mr Salmon. However, all three will be on the same level of authority, being responsible

to the national executive for their actions. This is a shift from the suggestion made at the June council meeting where it seemed that if the merger were to go ahead, it would be on the basis of Mrs Langford and Mr Salmon both being responsible to Mr Collingwood. If Mr Collingwood will accept the change, it is probable that the other two will. In theory, the merger proposal looks workable, providing there is enough goodwill in both organisations to make it work. In practice, even with goodwill, it may prove difficult to implement. Where it may fall down is in the management of the merged structure. The society is administered by the same number of people today, with 33,000 members, as it was 10 years ago with 10,000 members. This has proved possible because of the introduction of computers, but also because the administrative staff — as distinct from the conserva-

tionist staff — has been prepared to work at nights and over the week-end, often calling on free help from society members based in Wellington.

This situation is coping with the society’s administration, but only just. Anything that complicates the administration of the society may prove insupportable. The way the merger proposals are being framed, with responsibility for contact with members and financial accounting being shared between Nelson and Wellington, will certainly strain the administration. Its continued functioning also depends on whether Mr Collingwood, but even more Mrs Langford, will accept the new structure. If Mrs Langford were to leave, the society would face a tremendous problem in picking up again all the threads she now holds within the society. No-one is irreplaceable, but Mrs Langford has made herself nearly so.