International role planned for native forest action group

Press, 27 April 1989, Page 46

International role planned for native forest action group

By

WILLIAM HOBBS

in Nelson The environmental Maruia Society, the selfappointed guardian of the nation’s native forests for the last two decades, will take on a new, international role.

The director, Mr Guy Salmon, said that with the recent Government decision protecting South Westland forests and the establishment of the Paparoa National Park the Maruia Society has nearly reached its objectives in New Zealand. The society was running out of forests to save, he said. A widening of the group’s aims to more general environmental issues was foreshadowed a couple of years ago with the change of name from Native Forests Action Council to Maruia Society. Mr Salmon said a survey of members last year showed there was strong support for the society to become involved in international environmental

issues. It recognised its efforts in world terms could be ineffectual unless it concentrated on a few specific projects. Mr Salmon prepared a report on how the Maruia Society with the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society could become involved in the worldwide problem of saving tropical rain forests. He concluded the New Zealands effort should be directed three ways: • To the employment of a conservation officer in the Pacific. • To contribute ecological and scientific expertise in helping to set up national parks.

• To convene a conference in New Zealand to mobilise support and raise awareness for conservation action in nearby countries. Funds have been raised for a conservation officer and Mr Salmon will visit Papua New Guinea and the Solomons in June to see where the officer

should be located. Work is also under way on the second policy direction after the visit of a scientific team to Fiji to investigate possible sites for national parks. The third initiative, a conference, will be held in Auckland in November. Mr Salmon said the society was aware of the difficulties it faced exporting its forest protection campaign. While campaigns in New Zealand had been aimed at protecting native forest which was already in public ownership there was very little publicly owned forest land in the Pacific region.

Conservationists would deal with private landowners who in turn were being besieged by developers and logging companies. To get land set aside for protection compensation would need to be offered to landowners. The society hoped the New Zealand Government would put some of its

overseas . aid to Pacific countries into national park development. The preservation of a small reserve of Pacific kauri in Fiji had already been funded by New Zealand. The development of national parks in Fiji could fit in with present thinking that aid should be channelled into sustainable projects. Fiji’s tourism industry was based largely on its beaches and it was having difficulty competing with other places with the same attraction. National parks could add another dimension to the industry, Mr Salmon said. Mr Salmon said one of the keys to the success of any conservation campaign it mounted in Fiji dr in the Pacific would be to tap into local support.

New Zealand conservationists could not go in as missionaries; they had to feel there was a local commitment to do something, he said. Papua New Guinea or

the Solomons were the two priority areas for a conservation officer. Mr Salmon said Papua New Guinea offered an exciting challenge to conservationists because 80 per cent of the country still had its original forest cover and ownership was in the hands of the tangata whenua. It was as New Zealand would have been to someone arriving in 1870. Choices were still open to the Papua New Guinea people and organisations like the Maruia Society could help in highlighting the options for future use of the forest. In the Solomons, options were not as wide as the forests were under severe threat and could be cut out completely within 12 years at the present rate of use. Mr Salmon said he was confident New Zealand conservationists could mount an effective campaign to help save Pacific islands forests.