Picture by Tim Cuff
The Panel for the Ministerial Inquiry into Land Use in Tairāwhiti and Wairoa has published its report, Outrage to Optimism, with nearly 50 recommendations for turning around the communities’ post-flood desperate circumstances. Source: Timberbiz
The report of the Ministerial Inquiry into woody debris (including forestry slash) and sediment in Tairāwhiti/Gisborne and Wairoa was presented to the two lead ministers, David Parker and Peeni Henare.
“The impact of slash on the East Coast communities has been devastating. More than 10,000 Tairāwhiti people petitioned for land use to be better managed. This report responds to that call,” David Parker said.
“The panel received 318 submissions, many of them substantial. The report has been delivered on time, after ministers agreed a short extension to allow time for the panel to properly consider the high volume of submissions.
“Ministers will now promptly and carefully consider the report and make decisions on its recommendations, to be announced as soon as possible,” Mr Parker said.
The report will immediately inform the current review of the National Environmental Standards on plantation forestry.
The Inquiry panel was chaired by Hekia Parata. The other members were Matthew McCloy and Dave Brash.
The report can be found here: www.environment.govt.nz/milu-report
The Report’s recommendations are wide ranging and include:
- a call for an immediate halt to wide-scale clear felling of forestry and replace it with a mosaic of staged logging
- to transition extreme erosion zones out of pasture and production forestry into permanent forest
- a broad package of government support for clean-up, infrastructure and economic development in the region.
“Our recommendations reflect the fear, anger and doubt, but also the hopes and aspirations we heard at the numerous hui we held in the Gisborne and Wairoa districts,” said panel chair Hekia Parata. “We believe that, if these recommendations are implemented, they will deliver that better future the people need and deserve.”
In the Report’s foreword, the panel said: “While we make findings and recommendations for both Districts, the urgency of the situation across Ngati Porou is unassailable. An environmental disaster is unfolding in plain sight.
“We are not a third world country. We heard from experts that the situation is perilous – the time to act is now. In their estimation we have five to 10 years to turn this environmental disaster around.”
In the report, the panel found that “the forest industry had lost its social licence in Tairāwhiti due to a culture of poor practices facilitated by the Gisborne District Council’s capitulation to the permissiveness of the regulatory regime and its under-resourced monitoring and compliance. Together these factors caused environmental damage, particularly to land and waterways, and they have put the health and safety of people and their environment at risk,” the Report said.
Further recommendations include:
- Establishing a Woody Debris Taskforce to lead current and future clean-up activities in Tairāwhiti and Wairoa, with most of its funding coming from forest owners (the rest split between local and central government).
- Seeking to address isolation of communities caused by slips and flooding, and building future resilience, through adequate maintenance and renewals of local state highways, fixing drinking water supplies and initiating self-sufficient electricity supply systems for smaller communities in Tairāwhiti.
- Creating market opportunities and commercial use for harvest residues.
- Changes to forestry regulations to restrict the use of land for plantation forestry. Tightening of compliance monitoring of these rules.
- Recommending the establishment of a world-leading biodiversity credit scheme to incentivise permanent indigenous forests, piloted in the region.
- Partnering between the Government, whenua Māori landowners and the East Coast Exchange for a range of investment-ready development projects to transition to high-value land use and biodiversity.
- Appointing a Commissioner to assume responsibility for the Resource Management functions of the Gisborne District Council and to oversee new Regional Spatial Strategies and Natural and Built Environment Plans (which determine long-term land use or development suitability) and prioritise Tairawhiti to be one of the first regions to implement the new Acts.
The panel found that “much of the current land use is unsustainable. The unintended consequences of successive government strategies and inadequate local authority intervention have arisen from a failure to recognise the complexity of the regions’ well-known geomorphology, and people. The loss of soil is perilously close to being irretrievable… Around half of the erosion in Tairāwhiti comes from highly erodible gullies, despite them only representing around 2% of the region’s area.”
In recommending capital funding to provide for economic development, the panel finds: “Māori landowners had a longer-term view and a more sustainable relationship with the environment, despite many obstacles. The land is generally located on the most marginal land zones, with poor or no accessibility, it cannot be sold and is constantly predated upon in the public interest.”
