Activists told to work with landowners

By WAYNE THOMPSON

An American who has helped to secure 600,000ha for public reserves had blunt advice for Auckland conservationists: work with landowners instead of treating them as greedy developers.

Ralph Benson headed the Trust for Public Land, a private non-profit organisation which he calls "the real estate arm of conservation" in the United States.

In 30 years, he said, the trust had built up expertise in negotiating buys of significant pieces of land for passing on to public agencies, and in tapping private and public sources to pay for it, including access to capital markets.

"The greedy developer mindset doesn't work," said Mr Benson.

Highly skilled conservationists forged partnerships between land owners and the trust to retire sensitive land as a first step towards sale and permanent protection.

Owners could be induced to sell at a discount because of US tax breaks for philanthropy and selling land or easements for conservation purposes.

A daunting task faces Mr Benson's New Zealand hosts, the Long Bay-Okura Great Park Society.

The society's "Save the Thousand Acres" crusade has badgered the North Shore City Council and the Auckland Regional Council into adding neighbouring farmland to the 110ha Long Bay Regional Park on the North Shore.

The city council paid $22.5 million late last year to add 38.5ha of farmland behind the clifftop walkway and the regional council is in mediation with owner LandCo over how much it should pay for 6ha nearer the beach.

North Shore parks chairwoman Margaret Miles said that with land values rising at a dizzy pace, it was becoming harder to find money for park acquisitions.

"Yet we need to ensure we have plenty of green space to meet the growing needs of our community so we need to look at all the options as to how to do that."

The chairman of the society, David Gatward, said Mr Benson was helping with the search for techniques to overcome the huge outlay needed to buy further farm land to complete the Great Park.

The San Francisco-based consultant suggested setting up a land trust, which could establish a relationship with landowners and a plan for saving the land for future generations.

Mr Gatward denied Mr Benson was invited out of desperation because the councils could not be counted on for more money to extend the park.

The society would keep pushing local authorities to extend its co-operation with Government agencies and to set up $30 million to compensate land owners.

A bid for a grant from Infrastructure Auckland had failed, he said, and the Department of Conservation was not sympathetic because it saw the land as "abused pasture land" and so of low conservation values.