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Conservation and Land Information Minister Eugenie Sage made the announcement today, saying the area would “fall under the korowai or mantle” of the Tu Te Rakiwhanoa Drylands, a collaborative initiative between the Crown, manawhenua and landowners. .
“Their goal is to encourage active protection and management of significant lower-elevation areas in the Mackenzie and Waitaki watersheds to protect the area’s impressive landscape values and ensure native plants and wildlife can thrive,” said Ms. Sage.
The land was not involved in the grass and forest fires that ravaged around 3,000ha along Lake Pukaki earlier this week.
Nineteen planes were called in to fight the fire, which was eventually extinguished by a heavy snowfall.
Ms Sage told the Otago Daily Times that the fire highlighted the importance of fighting the spread of wild conifers, which were “the main source of fuel.”
The government was committing “substantial resources” to controlling wild conifers, he said, with the budget doubling in 2019 to $ 21 million, and another $ 100 million allocated in 2020 as part of the “works for nature program.”
“Tussocklands by themselves do not increase the risk of fire.
“The biggest challenge is doing everything possible to reduce emissions and the effects of climate change that we are already seeing are contributing to drier summers and longer and more intense wildfire seasons, especially in the eastern South Island.”
Ms Sage said that there was also a need to raise awareness of fire safety when using farm and other machinery and when camping.
“There is a lot we can learn from Australia.”
The new dryland conservation land includes 1,792ha at Ohau Downs bought by the Kees Zeestraten natural heritage fund who wanted to use it for dairy production.
Ms Sage said that the land of the Ohau Downs included the most extensive intact sequences of landforms created by glacial deposits in New Zealand, and tarns, wetlands and freshwater complexes with nationally important ecological and landscape values.
The conservation area also includes 4,100ha of unoccupied Crown land on the Tasman River bed, 3,132ha of the Simons Pass pastoral lease and 1,631ha of the Twin Peaks pastoral lease.
Ms Sage said the New Zealand Defense Force had added its support to the drylands initiative, in its management of its 15,000ha Tekapo military training area, by controlling wild conifers and predators.
Ms Sage said indigenous vegetation, habitats and landscapes at lower altitudes in the Mackenzie and Waitaki watersheds had been “severely affected by agricultural intensification, cultivation, irrigation and dairy farming.”
“This and the loss of connected ecosystems has been the source of conflict between environmental defenders, councils, farmers and landowners for decades.
“Tu Te Rakiwhanoa Drylands is looking for a less combative path where the people and stakeholders of the Mackenzie Basin can choose to do what is right for nature, while doing what is right for each other.”
