Bird haven to some, racetrack to others

Conservationists and off-road vehicle enthusiasts are in conflict at South Kaipara Head. PHILIP ENGLISH reports.

To mark World Wetland Day tomorrow, the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society is making a bid to protect wildlife on Papakanui Spit, a nesting habitat for endangered and threatened New Zealand seabirds and a roosting site for up to 10,000 waders and migratory birds.

Papakanui, off South Kaipara Head, is one of three sites in New Zealand where critically endangered fairy terns nest. Only about 30 of the birds are left.

South Kaipara Head also contains the Auckland region's best sand dune systems, threatened plants, salt marsh and wetlands as well as a deer infestation and four-wheel-drive off-roaders indifferent to the wildlife.

Forest and Bird wants the site and other Conservation Department land within the Kaipara Harbour listed under the Ramsar Convention - signed 30 years ago in the Iranian town of Ramsar to protect the world's important wetlands.

Papakanui and other department land around the Kaipara Harbour meet several criteria for such a listing.

But the Conservation Department has plans to establish an off-road recreation area in the vicinity. Nearby is a weapons range where the Air Force practises bomb drops.

In the Auckland region there is just one Ramsar site, at Miranda on the Firth of Thames, an area popular among sightseers and schoolchildren for its huge number of migratory birds which feed on Hauraki Gulf mudflats and roost on shellbanks.

The only part of Papakanui to be protected as a wildlife refuge is at present under water. Most of the spit is in Conservation Department stewardship which gives it - and the birds - little legal protection from those who gain access to the site along Muriwai Beach or from other South Kaipara roads in the Woodhill Forest.

The northern field officer for Forest and Bird, Sarah Gibbs, said breeding colonies of some birds had abandoned the area because of disturbances.

She said volunteers monitoring the breeding of rare birds had also been threatened by some off-road vehicle drivers who complained they would drive where they wanted and would "make sure there are no birds there" for conservationists to look after.

The breeding of some rare and endangered birds at Papakanui had improved in recent years, she said, but apparently only because the birds had moved to an offshore sand island.

Ms Gibbs said if there was no support for a Ramsar listing, the Papakanui area should be made a wildlife refuge and the department should abandon its plan to establish a four-wheel-drive recreation area.

"This is a world-class site. It deserves better than to be just chucked into the too-hard basket."

The community relations manager at DoC's Auckland office, Warwick Murray, said the department would be keen to see Papakanui as a Ramsar site but there were other areas of higher priority for upgraded protection.

"The other issue is that while it is one step in the process towards finding solutions to the problem of damage to nesting bird populations, it is not going to be the only answer. In reality, we have got to win the hearts and minds of people who use the area."

Mr Murray said there was no doubt that some drivers of off-road vehicles drove over bird nests.

He said the department was considering reaching an agreement with off-road vehicle clubs to allow them access at certain places and times.

But fully protecting the area would require the cooperation of the Auckland Regional Council, the Rodney District Council and the Woodhill Forest owner, Carter Holt Harvey, to close access to the beach completely.

"That would run right across the interests of a section of the community who have been using the area for years and who feel they have a right to continue to use it. We can't ignore that."

The president of the Four Wheel Drive Association, Peter Vahry, said clubs represented only a small number of off-road drivers. He said his club had an agreement to keep out of the Papakanui Spit area but it was not illegal to drive on the beach.

"I have said to [Forest and Bird] we will work with you on an education programme as much as we can."

DoC is marking World Wetland Day by taking members of the Auckland Chinese community to Miranda so they can see the birds shared by New Zealanders and countries in the Northern Hemisphere but which are coming under threat through coastal development in Asia.