"This investment in nature will support thousands of people with jobs and pay dividends for generations to come by giving nature a helping hand," says Sage.
"The workers will help protect and restore indigenous biodiversity and habitat, help with revegetation of private and public conservation land and undertake riparian planting."
Those who have lost their jobs in other sectors could move into this work. I wonder if former AirNZ staff will?
Projects to receive funding include $27m to eradicate invasive wallabies in the South Island, $100m to control wilding pines (Pinus contorta) and $40m to clear rivers on crown land such as Lake Wanaka of weeds and pests.
The projects are a major opportunity to save 4000 native species heading towards extinction, but we need clearer direction on the climate and economy before celebrating.
At least 2000 projects, public and private, have been proposed as "shovel ready".
The three criteria being spoken of in public are jobs, speed and visibility.
Legislation has been written for an environmental fast-tracking law which bypasses the Resource Management Act. This is the ultimate goal for the largest of the shovel-ready projects and those that don't need funding, just environmental permission.
The new law will heavily restrict public and legal expertise on projects that could seriously harm the environment. The Minister for the Environment will decide which projects are fast-tracked. Consents will be granted, effectively making the Minister the decider for about $20b of potentially environmentally destructive projects.
Forest & Bird, Auckland Council and Long Bay Okura Great Park Society were recently awarded $291,000 in costs for court action defending Long Bay Okura Marine Reserve from Todd Property's profit-driven 1000-coastal-housing proposal. The proposal sought to advance its own interests rather than the public interest and failed to address landscape and natural character issues.
The Okura estuary was saved by the RMA, but similar projects being lined up will not need to meet the same standard of care.
A housing development planned in Porirua, next to the important Taupo Wetland, has been put on a fast track, raising alarm over how the wetland will be protected with community and conservation expertise cut out of the process.
This curtailing of environmental rights is a warning. We could lose the last bits of our native ecosystems in the frenzy to pour $20b into development across the country.
A Waikato drainage project has been proposed as shovel ready, and aims to pump water out of a failed wetland-to-grazing conversion which is now subsiding below sea level.
Wetlands are important for protecting and improving water quality, providing habitats for fish and other wildlife, storing floodwaters, maintaining surface water flow during dry periods and reducing soil erosion. So the Waikato project should not go ahead.
Supporters of environmental projects have been sending letters to Ministers Phil Twyford and Grant Robertson with the following messages:
Evidence shows that a green stimulus delivers more jobs, faster and with greater economic multipliers than more traditional stimulus. If you want to deliver the best bang for buck you will deliver a green stimulus.
Please choose projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, build resilience to climate change impacts, protect and maintain important native species, improve water quality, enhance the sustainability of the marine environment and fisheries, reduce waste and promote a circular economy.
If projects could increase greenhouse gas emissions or harm nature, please don't fund them.
• Margi Keys is a member of Forest & Bird, the Green Party and Sustainable Whanganui. She has co-ordinated the team of Conservation Comment scribes since 2017 and is on the lookout for more.
