Price of limiting rural land use

Press, 20 April 1988, Page 32

Price of limiting rural land use

People calling for tighter constraints on commercial development of the natural environment should i remember New Zealand’s economy was founded lon landbased industries, and there was a price to be paid for limiting rural land use, according to North Canterbury Federated i I Farmers' senior vice-president, Mr Ness Wright. ! | L The existing “checks and balances” in planning regulations offered adequate protection of the environment, and were underpinned by a natural concern among farmers for the conservation |of the environment, he said.

“Most farmers are conservationists at heart. It is

all a part of farming,” he said.

Mr Wright I said comments recently by the director of the Native Forest Action Council, Mr Guy Salmon, that farmers should be subject to more rigorous planning constraints were mere “kiteflying,” and ignored the question of who would foot the bill for tougher laws.

If anything, the balance was tipped against farmers and developers, with years of planning often invested in projects only to have Them overturned by > the rulemakers, he said.

The prospect of greater urban involvement in rural local authorities, as suggested by Mr Salmon,

was no more realistic than the idea of farmers seeking direct involvement in the Christchurch City Council, Mr Wright said.

Using Mr Salmon’s logic, farmers could seek to influence cities such as Christchurch which service the rural economy, but they had not attempted to do that.

“No farmer would enter into clear-felling of native bush on private land without consideration of the natural environment,” said Mr Wright.

But environmental groups needed to recognise that the economy would not run more efficiently by “closing up New Zealand on environmental grounds.”