Research centres merged

Press, 14 May 1982, Page 18

Research centres merged

Two groups associated with environmental science and the management of New Zealand resources have joined together. The Tussock. Grasslands and Mountain Lands Institute at Lincoln College and the Joint Centre for Environmental Sciences, based at Lincoln College and the University of Canterbury, have joined forces to become the Joint Centre for Resource Management. The go-ahead for the move has been received from the University of Canterbury, Lincoln College, and the Minister of Lands.

Dr John Hayward, director of the Joint Centre for Environmental Sciences, has been invited to head the new unit. It will take on the work of both institutions, and will .continue to have bases at Lincoln and Canterbury.

The centre's teaching, research, and extension will have the over-all goal of advancing knowledge of the management of New Zealand’s resources. It's teaching will lead to the degrees of Ph.D. and M.Sc. (Resource Management) and the postgraduate Diploma in Natural Resources.

Research on the use and management of New Zealand’s resources will cover the areas which both bodies have worked on until now. The extension effort will be to spread information about the options and implications of resource use. with emphasis on the problems of tussock grasslands and mountain lands. The Tussock Grasslands

and Mountain Lands Institute was established in 1960. Its funding came from Government through a grant made by the Department of Lands and Survey, and it worked as an institution of Lincoln College.

Under its objectives, it has investigated “facets of resource management in the tussock grasslands and mountain lands, including the development of techniques to aid management of these lands for pastoral use, agricultural and forest production, the preservation of wildlife habitats, water, and recreation, and the conservation of landscape, soil, flora and indigenous fauna.” The institute was managed by a committee of the Lincoln College council. The committee is to remain, with the terms of reference set down in its initial Cabinet

Minute. Because of its influential membership, the committee has the opportunity to review policies, debate issues, and suggest research and other activities.

Although the merger is sure to be viewed with caution by some hill and high country farmers, suspecting a reduction in research effort into their problems, the chairman of the High Country Committee of Federated Farmers, Mr M. R. Murchison. is confident the move is a good one. “It must help the cause of research oh hill and high country because both institutions were below a certain ’critical mass’,” said Mr Murchison, who is also on the committee of management of the T.G.M.L.I. The Joint Centre for Environmental Sciences was formed in 1973 by the Lin-

coln and Canterbury councils. Its task has been “to advance understanding of the principles of environmental science for the purpose of managing our resources for a sustainable future.”

Recent studies on issues such as the use of the Southland lignite resource have been part of the Joint Centre’s emphasis on developing the knowledge and skills needed to make decisions about New Zealand's resources.

Along with its teaching programme, to be undertaken by the new centre, the Joint Centre undertook contract research work for agencies including the Liquid Fuels Trust Board, the Commission for the Environment, the Department of Education. and the Department of Lands and Survey.