Market gardens suggested for Buller region

Press, 11 August 1982, Page 2

Market gardens suggested for Buller region

PA Wellington A Government report on growth and employment in the Buller region has suggested intensive market gardening in the area as a switch from the timber industry. A D.S.I.R. report, released yesterday by the Minister for Science and the Environment (Dr Shearer) suggests increased vegetable production with an emphasis on crops such as broccoli and celery, which could absorb the high transport costs of bringing it from the West Coast to markets.

Crops could also be extensively grown under glass, making use of the availability of cheap coal as a heat source.

The report is aimed at assessing the feasibility of new industries on the Coast, which would make more effective use of land, labour, and mineral resources while conserving the region’s native forests. .

The report also suggests that a variety of specialist crops could be grown in the area, such as wild rice, Japanese green tea, Japanese shoot ginger “mioga,” and a high-value Japanese condiment called “wasabi.” Dr Shearer said that a second study was being commissioned for the South Westland region, which was heavily dependent on timber milling. “West Coast industries based on the exploitation of

native timber are steadily destroying the unique lowland forests of the region,” Dr Shearer said. “Alternatives must be found, particularly as the Forest Service is now advancing new proposals for milling the forests of Buller,” he said.

The release of the study followed up clashes between Dr Shearer and an anticonservationist lobby, headed by the Wellington lawyer, Mr D. J. Dalgety. Mr Dalgety has criticised conservationists for imposing constraints on the West Coast without regard for the people actually living in the region. But Dr Shearer said, . .

It is my belief that these studies will identify methods of creating more jobs than will be lost by the inevitable end to logging on the West Coast.”

If the new approach to regional development proved successful, Dr Shearer said, he would probably seek approval to apply it to other areas of New Zealand where environmental and development values were in conflict. “The 1980 s are a critical time for the New Zealand environment. Indigenous forests, wildlife, and wetlands are under pressure right across the country,” he said. “They are in this position in many cases for want of well researched alternatives to traditional, extraction? type industries.”