Nature must take centre stage when reimagining tourism in New Zealand writes Nicky Snoyink. Many of New Zealand’s evocative landscapes, like the Mackenzie Basin, are highly vulnerable to development and overuse. A Mackenzie dryland heritage area is vital to protecting what remains of those vast, golden landscapes New Zealanders know and love. The Mackenzie Basin needs tourism planning that prioritises and invests in nature protection and good community infrastructure.
Investing in wilding pine control through Covid-19 economic recovery has been put forward as a way of offering employment to those most affected by the tourism downturn.
EDS today released its Tourism and Landscape Protection report which is the first case study published as part of its broader Protected Landscapes Project. The report is co-authored by EDS Policy Director Raewyn Peart and EDS Solicitor Cordelia Woodhouse.
“Prior to Covid-19, tourism was New Zealand’s number one export earner. Tourists mainly came to see our natural landscapes. But the rapid growth of the industry came at considerable environmental and social cost,” said Raewyn Peart.
The Environmental Defence Society (EDS) is fighting a High Court appeal by Simons Pass Station Ltd regarding the consenting pathway for further expansion of intensive dairying in the Mackenzie Country.
“The appeal brought by Simons Pass Station Ltd is seeking to overturn an Environment Court decision that granted declarations sought by Mackenzie District Council as to the correct activity status for agricultural conversion consents on the property,” said EDS CEO Gary Taylor.
This species is only found in the Mackenzie Basin, which is a national hotspot for this whole genus.
OPINION: The clock is ticking down to the Government’s long-awaited decisions on water policy.
Is the Labour-led coalition going to fail New Zealanders on fresh water, as every previous Government has done? Or will it make history, listening to the public and putting our country on the path to healthy, swimmable rivers as promised in 2017?
A much-delayed project to better protect the Mackenzie Basin’s stunning landscapes and bolster biodiversity has a new boss.
Regional councils and farmers are doing the best they can but it’s expensive to control wallabies and they really need central Government to step up to the plate.
