World Heritage status

Press, 6 December 1985, Page 12

World Heritage status

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

World Heritage status is being sought for an area of more than two million hectares in the southwest of the South Island. If the whole package is adopted, the area would run from Okarito, halfway down the West Coast, to Waitutu, at the bottom of Fiordland.

The proposal is being pushed by New Zealand’s largest single conservation group — the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society. It hopes to have World Heritage status for at least part of this huge area by 1987, the centennial year for New Zealand’s national parks. There are now about 170 World Heritage sites around the world, including the Great Barrier Reef off Australia, the Mount Everest area of Nepal, and the Rocky Mountains of North America. These are the premier natural areas of the world. Deciding exactly what areas in the south-west of the South Island should be nominated for world

Heritage status is now involving conservationists and the tourist industry. Dr David Bellamy, of television fame, has described World Heritage status as “the best advertisement an area can be given.” It will greatly improve the area’s international profile and add the weight of international censure to anything likely to damage the area’s natural or scenic features. So far, the National Parks and Reserves Authority has agreed that three national parks should be nominated — Westland, Mount Cook, and Fiordland. However, the authority has also agreed to consider the much larger area being proposed. • . Included in this expanded proposal are four national parks (Westland, Mount Cook, Aspiring,

and Fiordland), Okarito Lagoon, and nearby Waitangiroro Nature Reserve which includes the breeding grounds of the white heron. It would take in the Crown lands of the Hooker-Landsborough, Red Hills and Hump Ridge (Waitutu), protected State forests of southern Westland, and the Olivine, Pyke, and Waitutu State forests of Southland. No private, Maori, or leased Crown lands would be included.

The overwhelming bulk of this land is already protected, but decisions on the future management of the southern Westland State forests, which contain the country’s last extensive kahikatea forests, still leave that area in doubt. Even if some logging is permitted, it is still expected that the predominant uses will be for tourism, nature conservation, and recreation.

World Heritage status is conferred regardless of tenure. There would be no need for the whole area to become a national park, but there would need to be laws and policies providing for the preservation of the areas. Having the larger rather than the smaller proposal means that the tourism benefits could be spreadv over the whole region instead of just the "hot spots” of Milford Sound and Mount Cook. Tourist promotion would be coordinated and small towns within the area, such as Whataroa, Haast, and Wanaka, would benefit from the central positions. “The grand scale of this proposal befits the grandeur and majesty of this unbroken expanse of untouched forests, lofty mountains, scenic lakes, wild rivers, and coastlines — all in a vast tract of temperate wilderness of world significance,” says the Royal Forest and Bird , Protection Society.