Baches on public land must go says DoC

All private baches and cribs on conservation land in New Zealand will be "phased out" under newly drafted Conservation Department policy.

Hundreds, if not thousands of holiday homes, fishing huts and even former family homes are likely to be removed as DoC clears conservation land for the public.

Department policy analyst Paul Blaschke conceded yesterday that the clause was contentious.

"Existing private accommodation on public conservation lands will be phased out," it says. While not a new idea, it was only now being formalised.

Mr Blaschke said public conservation land was for the benefit of all New Zealanders.

"The idea of accommodation that's exclusively for private use is inconsistent with the concept of public conservation land."

Canterbury University environmental law lecturer David Round said private huts belonging to "ordinary modest New Zealanders" helped "humanise the landscape".

Writing for the next edition of the Federated Mountain Clubs (FMC) magazine, Mr Round says: "Baches are places of which many of us, even if we have never owned one, may have happy memories and which are surely a deep and abiding portion of our heritage."

He doubted FMC members, the "tangata whenua of the back country", would be able to claim that a hut should not be removed "simply because of our strong spiritual and cultural attachment".

Mr Blaschke said some private huts, such as those of tramping or skiing clubs, would be exempt if they were open for public use or if anyone could become a club member.

The policy did not have a timeframe and conservancies would decide how it was administered. A draft is due this month.

- NZPA