Agencies debate kauri extraction

LOAD: A pair of giant swamp kauri stumps, seen here at Moerewa, are trucked south on State Highway 1. Stumps may be exported legally but not logs.PHOTO/PETER DE GRAAF

Northland Regional Council says it is responsible for swamp kauri mining only when extraction may damage protected species or wetlands.

It has clarified its role after the furore over the issue raised confusion about who was responsible for what.

The Te Taitokerau Maori Advisory Committee invited council consents/monitoring senior programme manager Colin Dall to its monthly meeting this week to clear up confusion over the different roles and responsibilities of the council and Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI).

"There are three key players," he said. "Both the Northland Regional Council and the district councils have a role under the Resource Management Act and that's looking and managing activities associated with the taking out of the kauri from the land, so extraction.

"Now the other key player in the management is the MPI and they deal with milling and exporting - that's their responsibility under the Forests Act."

NRC member and Te Taitokerau Maori Advisory Committee chairman Dover Samuels recently accused MPI of "pointing the finger" and trying to shift responsibility. MPI said NRC, not it, was responsible for overseeing the extraction of swamp kauri in Northland.

Through the Resource Management Act, the council was responsible only when extraction could damage protected species or wetlands.

Mr Dall said the council looked at resource consent to mine swamp kauri. He said consent was required if it didn't meet its rules in the Regional Water and Soil Plan.

"One of the key things is that resource consent is always needed if the extraction activities take place in indigenous wetlands," he said.

"There is criteria for determining what indigenous wetland is."

For land to be considered indigenous it had to contain "basically 50 per cent indigenous plants". This comment caused a loud sigh in the room with Hokianga o Nga Hapu Whanau representative and kaumatua Patu Hohepa requesting the NRC rethink the definition.

"What is indigenous? Because it seems to be if you have an area that is covered, in say manuka, all of the gorse invades it - it is no longer indigenous," he said.

The presentation also raised concerns about disparities between government agencies with some requests for MPI, NRC, hapu and iwi to work together on monitoring swamp kauri mining.

Environmental groups are calling for an inquiry into the trade, claiming logs are being exported illegally, and that extraction is damaging wetlands.

They claim the ministry and Customs are taking little or no action to stop the export of unprocessed kauri logs, planks and slabs, which is banned under the Forests Act 1949.

However, the MPI insists it is committed to enforcing the rules and investigates any reports of illegal exports.

The complaint by the Northland Environmental Protection Society and the Far North branch of Forest and Bird says huge quantities of swamp kauri are being mined, stockpiled and exported, threatening wetlands and native species.