Estimates Debate — Vote Conservation

The Department of Conservation manages 8.5 million hectares of conservation land on behalf of all of us, 4.4 million New Zealanders. It also welcomes over a million and a half visitors to its 24 visitors centres, 970 huts, 1,400 kilometres of walking tracks, and 1,750 toilets. It manages 13,000 square kilometres of marine reserves, with huge new subantarctic island marine reserves, five new West Coast marine reserves, and one at Akaroa in the pipeline.

The department undertakes some fantastic environmental initiatives and supports over 550 community conservation projects, including some that do pest control, biodiversity projects, the restoration of historic sites, and the promotion of New Zealand’s wonderful great outdoors. That is the promotion of walking, tramping, climbing, hunting, and in more recent times the promotion of New Zealand’s nine Great Walks on an international scale, in partnership with Air New Zealand. It does all this on a budget of just over $444 million, and even then it manages to generate $17.5 million of Crown revenue.

There have been considerable changes and improvements to the department over the past year. I would really like to start by acknowledging the work of the Director-General, Al Morrison, who has worked with the department for 11 years, and for 7 of those years he has been the Director-General. He resigned in April to take up a job with the State Services Commission, and we really want to thank him for the work he has done and for his total commitment to the department in that time, and we wish him well in his new position.

The department has also completed an extended period of reorganisation to prepare it for the challenges of the future. What it has done is divide the department into two distinct operational groups. One is focused on traditional conservation field work. That is work that the department is particularly good at. It is important work and greatly appreciated by New Zealanders. Despite staffing changes, the numbers of the front-line staff will increase in this area from 866 to 915. The other group is working on developing new conservation initiatives in partnership with other organisations. These are exciting new projects that are being developed, and they are projects like ones that we know, such as the project between Air New Zealand and the Department of Conservation, which is a collaboration to support the survival of endangered species. Often, species have to be transported from one environment to another if they are going to survive, and Air New Zealand is working in partnership with the department to provide the means of that transport, transporting threatened birds or wildlife around the country and even sometimes back again for reintroduction.

There is another interesting project collaboration with the Dulux paint company. This is a partnership to work with the department and volunteer groups to repair and repaint huts throughout the conservation estate, and that has really caught the imagination. It was on Breakfast. People are out there having a good time, doing some working bees, and getting these huts improved. We have got the BNZ kiwi protection programme and we have got the Rio Tinto kākāpō recovery projects. All these projects have a double benefit. They increase the amount of conservation projects that are out there in the environment, but they also engage businesses and their staff in supporting our clean, green image.

Over the past few years the engagement between the department and volunteers has increased dramatically. New Zealanders really do enjoy working with the department, and in the last year they donated over 32,000 volunteer days. Again, it is a win-win situation. New Zealanders get out there in the outdoors and they get involved with the environment and conservation projects. The Department of Conservation has also been working on upgrading and redeveloping many of the department’s camping areas and huts—

Vote agreed to.

Vote Housing