Ewan McGregor: Sustainability progress deserves credit

Ewan McGregor

For about a decade I attended the annual conference of Federated Farmers, then invariably held in Wellington.

The first was in 1975, and the chairman of the then named Dairy Section, Gordon Stephenson, a Waikato dairy farmer and a visionary environmentalist, reported to the conference that a group he led was exploring the idea of establishing a vehicle to assist farmers to protect treasured landscapes, especially, remnant patches of native bush on farmland.

This seemed a novel idea, given that we had just come through a century of bush clearance to make way for grass to produce meat, wool and dairy produce. Maybe there was a bit of scepticism among delegates, but curiosity nevertheless.

At the 1976 Stephenson, as I recall it, further reported to conference that a working party was developing a trust to undertake the process of encouraging and assisting landowners to covenant such areas that they wanted to be legally protected in perpetuity.

Ownership of the land remained unchanged, and participation was entirely voluntary - and, in the event, fundamental to its success. (Farmers don't like outsiders telling them what to do, of which there's no shortage.)

At the 1977 conference Stephenson reported that the trust was being established by legislation. It was to be named the Queen Elizabeth II National Trust to commemorate the Queen's 25th anniversary on the throne. Under it, a covenant, once registered, is sacrosanct, and can only be removed by act of Parliament.

Recently the NZ Herald marked the trust's 40th anniversary with an editorial. It explained that nationally there are 4300 covenants totalling 180,000 hectares. A Waikato University study has calculated that this area has an "opportunity cost" (that is, lost commercial value by forgoing development) of between $443 million and $638m. (On average, $105,000 per covenant.) In addition, various landowner costs in maintaining and enhancing the areas is estimated to be about $25m annually.

In Hawke's Bay there are 245 registered covenants protecting about 10,680ha, with seven pending, involving 94ha.

It has now become fashionable for many cloaking themselves with the mantel of environmentalism to demonise farmers, especially dairy farmers, as the nation's primary polluters. How often do you hear these people - and this includes some of our current regional councillors - celebrating such initiatives as the QEII Trust?

Well, you don't. (It should be said that the H B Regional Council was the first in the country to assist the trust's objectives, but that was way back in the mid-1990s when a different spirit prevailed around the council table.)

The trust, it seems, is a well kept conservation secret. So it is gratifying to see the nation's by far biggest circulation daily editorialising this wonderful voluntary contribution to New Zealand's ecology, environment and landscape condition.

But there are many other worthy initiatives. The reality is that few farmers have a treasure that qualifies for protection under the trust. But there have been huge advances in riparian protection along waterways where it is practical. And dairy farmers are upgrading their shed effluent systems, which is no cheap exercise.

Likewise, there are many who are planting for soil conservation, and the Farm Forestry Association has plenty of enthusiastic members.

Unfortunately, the environmental standards have shifted over the past two or three decades faster than farmers have been able to respond.

It is true that farm political leaders have in the past been too defensive and reactionary (Hawke's Bay's Bruce Wills was an exception), and there are always a few practitioners who let the side down, but the enormous good work being undertaken to make our farming industry more sustainable needs proclaiming outside of the rural publications. So cheers to the NZ Herald for telling a good story to the paper's readers.

No great talent is needed to denigrate, and if done anonymously, of which there is plenty, no accountability is needed either.

Acknowledging good work begets more of the same.

Ewan McGregor is a former deputy chairman of Hawke's Bay Regional Council.