Radical new proposals would see New Zealand’s most significant rivers treated in the same regard as if they were National Parks and a government body established specifically to protect them.
These are just two of the recommendations from a new report published this week by the New Zealand Conservation Authority.
The report, Protecting New Zealand’s Rivers, argues that if we don’t act now to protect our best rivers we’ll lose them for good.
NZ Conservation Authority's Dr Kay Booth says that what it boils down to is the suggestion of some certainty around protecting rivers in their natural state.
"We’re not saying all rivers, we’re just saying just some of them, and that when we manage them we consider the protection of these rivers as well. And we respect that our rivers need to be used for a wide range of purposes.”
The call for greater protection of the country’s rivers has been welcomed by Forest and Bird.
Forest and Bird advocacy manager Kevin Hackwell says for too long the guardianship of the country’s top waterways has been left to volunteer groups such as his own, and a properly resourced government agency would be best placed to deal with the issue.
“Well I think the proposal to protect New Zealand’s outstanding rivers and a single government agency to do that is a good idea.”
Fish and Game is also highly impressed with the Conservation Authority’s call for greater action from central government to protect our rivers.
Fish and Game ceo Bryce Johnson says successive governments have failed to protect our waterways from pollution, water extraction and development.
However, Federated Farmers water spokesman Ian Mackenzie fears that the move will just create another layer of unnecessary bureaucracy.
“What that report says is that there are some rivers need further protection and others that they will ignore. So is this new department going to look after all the rivers or just the ones they think are worth protecting?
"Then who looks after the others? Then if you’ve got two levels of governance over rivers and you’re not sure which ones apply to which, isn’t that duplicating and making the whole situation not a hell of a lot better?"
Mr Mackenzie says the idea needs to be debated.
