Public input on parks may reduce

Press, 22 August 1987, Page 3

Public input on parks may reduce

Public input into the running of the country’s national parks and reserves might be limited in the future as a result of the reorganisation of Government departments.

When the Conservation Department was created last April, it took over the servicing of the national parks and reserves boards and the forest park advisory committees. Meanwhile, the Government made clear its intention to review all environmental quangos, and cut down the numbers.

The reorganisation must be completed by April of next year. In the process the North Canterbury National Parks and Reserves Board has been asked by its national authority to make a submission as to what it thinks its future should be. The board’s chairman, Mr lan Calvert, said a ‘‘battle royale” was possible if there was any move by the department to limit public input by dismantling the boards. “One of this board’s functions is to allow for public involvement,” he said. The board has therefore put two proposals to the authority to be considered for its submission to the department. The first suggestion is

for the national park boards to remain as they are, and for the forest park committees to be amalgamated into one board (there are three in Canterbury). There would then be eight national park boards and eight forest park boards throughout New Zealand, responsible to a national parks and forest parks authority.

Amalgamating all the boards would dilute the public ability to do anything, as the area of responsibility would be so great, said Mr Calvert. The second proposal is to have a board for each conservation district in the country, of which there are 35. “This would mean the board would work more at the grass-roots level,” said Mr Calvert. It could mean the regional and public position could be weakened however, he said. There would be a smaller regional body to co-ordinate the boards and present a regional point of view.