Miners question conservation costs

Press, 6 October 1988, Page 45

Miners question conservation costs

PA Wellington The cost of conservation is rarely considered in land use decisions, according to the Mining and Exploration Association. Making submissions on the Department of Conservation’s Protected Areas Legislation Review, the association’s president, Mr Richard Tweedie, said his organisation was not anti-con-servation. “But the cost of the conservation exercise should be something the New Zealand public is made aware of,” he said.

Protection of land had a national cost which was not considered in its allocation and administration

and ignored in the department’s discussion paper, Mr Tweedie said. An example was the refusal of the Minister of Conservation, Ms Clark, to consent to the Monowai mine in Coromandel Forest Park. The Minister’s veto, which the mining industry challenged successfully in the High Court, had cost more than $2O million, he said. The industry’s estimate was based on the community share of revenue from the mine. “The cost of that refusal over two hectares of Conservation Park land implies that the entire park’s conservation value is (about) $lOOO billion. That is greater than the

total gross value of land and improvements throughout New Zealand.”

The association’s submission suggests that proposed protected areas in legislation and the Conservation Act should be included in the resource management law review. It says every proposal to establish a protected area or increase its level of protection should be accompanied by a comprehensive social and economic impact study to ensure all potential uses of an area, including mining, are identified and considered.

Each proposal should then be open for public comment and independent review before a final decision is made.