Game Animal Council good for conservation and hunting

The Game and Forest Foundation of New Zealand Inc
Website: www.gameandforest.co.nz

Media Release

Wednesday 6th April 2011

A Game Animal Council the best thing for conservation and hunting in 50 Years

“Today’s announcement by the Minister of Conservation Hon Kate Wilkinson and the United Future Leader Hon Peter Dunne that a Game Animal is to be formed will benefit all of New Zealand” said Tom Williams chairman of the Game and Forest Foundation The establishment of a Game Animal Council as an independent statutory body is the result of a number of consultation processes going back to the mid nineties.

“Each of those consultation processes has resulted in an identified need for a statutory body to manage our deer, tahr, chamois and wild pigs for both hunting and conservation said Tom Williams” Currently valued introduced game animals are fundamentally unmanaged and this has resulted in a decline in quality of the game resource and lost opportunities for recreational hunting, tourism and conservation.

The number of people going out hunting has been on a steady increase over the last few years. Maintaining a skilled force of recreational hunters with generally free access to hunt on public land will maintain and increase the harvest of game animals that is vital for the conservation of our public land.

“One of the objectives of the Game and Forest Foundation is to ensure the wise management of game animals, through user participation that is compatible with reasonable biodiversity conservation goals and the Game Animal Council is totally consistent with that objective” said Tom Williams.

“We give our full support to the new Game Animal Council and congratulate both Hon Kate Wilkinson and Hon Peter Dunne for their foresight in establishing it. This is the most positive step for game animals and hunting in more than 50 years”

ENDS

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