Water groups exclude environmental voice

Forest & Bird is concerned that Environment Canterbury has started stacking new river groups by excluding anyone with environmental expertise.

The first local committee – looking at the Hurunui and Waiau river catchments, which are hotly contested for water development and dam proposals – has no members to represent environmental concerns.

Forest & Bird Conservation Advocate Nicola Vallance says excluding environmental interests from the zone committee erodes public confidence. “It confirms what many people feared – that the Government’s changes to Environment Canterbury were a Trojan horse for developing big dam projects in Canterbury,” she says.

Environmental representatives, including an ecology professor, who applied to Ecan to join the Hurunui and Waiau zone committee were declined.

Local zone committees are being set up to implement the Canterbury Water Management Strategy (CWMS). The strategy aims to get all interested parties around the table, and has goals for irrigation and conservation. Zone committees will work on 10 Canterbury catchments. The Hurunui-Waiau zone committee is the first.

The strategy’s terms of reference asked for representation from biodiversity or conservation interests as well as irrigation interests.

Ms Vallance urges the Environment Canterbury commissioners to ensure that conservation interests are represented on these crucial committees “2010 is the International Year for Biodiversity. Central and local government have a responsibility to ensure that New Zealand’s unique native plants and animals are protected,” she says.

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