Tenure review failing environment, says study

Conservation groups are furious about the deal made over Richmond Station on the shores of Lake Tekapo.

A new study has given the freeholding of pastoral lease land - called tenure review - the thumbs-down as conservationists fume over the latest deal.

Landcare Research ecologist Dr Susan Walker said tenure review was not only falling short of its goal of protecting native animals and plants but was having the opposite effect.

She found just 4 per cent of land high in conservation value - one of the key reasons the Government set up the tenure review - had been protected since the system began in 1998.

"Rather than meeting goals to protect indigenous biodiversity, New Zealand's land reform appears to have hastened its decline," she said.

Her findings have added fuel to the debate over tenure review, with Environment Canterbury, the Canterbury-Aoraki Conservation Board and the lobby group Forest and Bird furious over the deal made for Richmond Station on the shores of Lake Tekapo. The deal allows 64 per cent of its 9567ha - including 9km along the shores of the lake - to be freeholded when the stated aim of tenure review was a 50:50 split.

"What worries us is that there's a fog of ignorance about what's going on," said board chairman Alan Jolliffe.

"Tenure review is disposing of the crown jewels of the South Island by stealth."

Dr Walker's findings back up an earlier study by Lincoln University scientist Dr Ann Brower, who found leaseholders were getting a majority of the land in the tenure review process, with a $15.5 million taxpayer-funded sweetener.

Forest and Bird spokeswoman Eugenie Sage said the Government had to take notice of Dr Walker's report.

Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Dr Morgan Williams has launched an investigation into tenure review.

Yesterday, Land Information Minister David Parker said officials would take a "fresh look" at the process because of concerns over lakeside land.

The Canterbury-Aoraki Conservation Board has called for the Minister to halt tenure review while Dr Williams investigates.

High country farmers have not been happy with the review process either, saying high-altitude tussock land is essential for grazing and the review proposals make stations uneconomic. They also say they can manage the productive and conservation values of the land.


LAND RULES

* Tenure review allows farmers to freehold land in exchange for land with high conservation value.

* Since 1992, 58 per cent (162,000ha) has gone to the farmers and 42 per cent (117,500ha) to the Crown.

* Farmers have been paid $15.5 million on top of that.

* 66 leases have gone through review, 154 are in the process and 119 farmers have opted out.

* Farmers pay 86c a hectare per year rent for leasehold land.