FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
12 APRIL 2013

Emails Prompt Expanded Call for Defunding

Coromandel conservationists have expanded their call for defunding of the council-supported Waikato Biodiversity Forum (WBF) following disclosure of “extremely troubling” emails between the biodiversity group and public agencies.

The Upper Coromandel Landcare Association (UCLA) is asking Waikato Regional Council (WRC) and all Waikato district councils to withdraw financial support for the biodiversity forum and will be requesting investigations by the Ministries of Conservation and Local Government.

The complaint follows release under the Official Information Act of email communications between the Waikato Biodiversity Forum and staff of DOC, WRC, and local contractors concerning a WBF-organised community workshop on animal and plant pest control scheduled -- but then abruptly cancelled -- in early April.

“The Moehau Range at the top of the Coromandel is the site of a controversial DOC aerial 1080 operation later this month, and many in the community looked forward to discussing alternatives at the workshop,” said UCLA spokesperson Reihana Robinson. According to UCLA, however, the public was misled as to the reason for cancellation of the one-day workshop, and both DOC and WRC staff were aware of this at the time.

“While the biodiversity forum’s salaried organiser Moira Cursey told local residents the event would be cancelled due to insufficient interest,” Robinson said, “Cursey’s email messages disclose her real concern was the prospect of discussing aerial 1080 use on Moehau – a topic of urgent concern to our community.”

According to UCLA, an email from Cursey to DOC, WRC and the Moehau Environment Group sent well before the registration deadline named several individual participants and read, “ I don't want the day to cover any 1080 debate with and will shut this down if she tries to use the day for this agenda.”

Later that day, Cursey emailed DOC to say she had talked with “everyone involved” and that “all have concerns”. The email states she had decided to simply cancel the workshop entirely, despite an offer of “support” from the DOC Hauraki area manager. Cursey added the cancellation “feels very comfortable for me”. The next morning, Cursey messaged insiders that her public excuse for the cancellation would be “lack of community groups and landowners registered”.

The email disclosures are “extremely troubling”, UCLA’s Robinson said. “Here is a lobby group, publicly funded by regional and district ratepayers, displaying anything but honesty, transparency, and integrity. Worse still, neither DOC nor regional council staff uttered a peep about the deception, although they were well aware of it at the time.”

“With release of these emails, the Waikato Biodiversity Forum has lost all credibility. The cutoff of ratepayer funding should be a no-brainer. As for DOC and WRC, they have a lot of explaining to do. Their collusion in silencing any discussion of pest control options is very worrisome – if not frightening.”

ENDS

© Scoop Media