Protected natural areas

Press, 11 May 1984, Page 12

Protected natural areas

Sir, — The call by Dr Alan Mark for a national conservation policy giving equal consideration to all indigenous ecosystems and his warning that the last opportunities for preserving representative elam-

pies of our natural habitats are being destroyed (often with the aid of Government funds), are well made. We see increasing political ' interference in appointments to statutory bodies to exclude known conservationists. Concern and scientific knowledge appear of less importance than amenability. Other bodies also involved with the natural environment do not even have provision for representatives of science or conservation. All surviving indigenous ecosystems should be regarded as for preservation, unless a case can be made out otherwise, and the onus for proving this must lie with the would-be developer. It is shameful that ordinary folk, lacking in finance and time, are forced instead to justify protection after all these years of development when a mere 0.5 per cent of the country has been reserved in preference to another use forgone. — Yours, etc., ERIC BENNETT. Wellingon. May 6, 1984.