Government wants to cash in on conservation

http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/7035181/Government-wants-to-cash-in-on-conservation

Just read that on-line. Looks like the Government has hoisted it's pirate flag and signalled it's intent to pillage & plunder. Not a good omen !.

oh you mean like the crimson permanent assurance company in the meaning of life? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=errwLVgHpXY&feature=related

I wish it was just a bad joke, but they've publicly warned DoC to change their business model.

it conflicts with what DOC are doing, it's like when the forest service also had part of the conservation tasks to perform, one section was trying to save the forest another one was napalming native trees to plant exotics, thats part of the reason they split off and merged with the wildlife service from lands and survey to form a new govt dept , to seperate from the conflict with commercial interests. now the govt are sending down that road again. so what will doc do to finance themselves in the future concede to more commercial exploitation in the parks or sell off parts of the parks>? do we want our national parks to turn into the able tasman, over run by commercial interests, making it more busy than the waters of auckland? the next election will be interesting, national have gone down in hte poles and its not because any other political party are making more people happier about them, its because national are making more people unhappy.. the western world is caught up in neo classical economics which says you have to keep expanding commercially,,, but you can't do that forever without eventuall advsersely affecting the planet and the lives of all the people and plants on it, there have been more than enough adverse effects already, NZ should be standing up as a role model on protecting the environment and avoiding the theme park mentality that has affected so many other wilderness areas overseas.... the more unique we remain the more attractive we are to tourists who can come and see a truly unspoilt place that is proprected from commercial over exploitation, i see the mokihinui dam got shelved, to a certain extent it wasnt financially viable, if it was i think there would have been big moves to get it built. the dam building process is a hard one know if you are trying to build in areas that affect people living there, hence the waitaki dam failed, people were able to stonewall the process of getting it approved very effectively and the power co gave up and and went looking elsewhere. with mokihinui, if the govt agree to let the dam get built and they don't let doc have the final say then its far easier to get a dam built there... i wonder how long it is before they revisit wanting to build the dam, if power prices go up then it will become more financially worth while to build the dam there.... doc will no doubt get an ongoing concession out of it and in return they wouldnt protest the damn... as for mining, how long will the mines last? and what are the risks of damaging the environment for a long time after the mines have finished their use, it's short term gain at a great risk to the long term future of our environment... the country is making masses of money already from people travelling here for our unspoilt land... they are jeapordising that with all the talk of doc having to become more commercially oriented...

the western world is caught up in neo classical economics which says you have to keep expanding commercially,,, Its worse than that. The rules also only allow you 3 years to do it in. Unfortuanatly in politics the only other options are just as bad or maybe worse. Mokanui wasnt about power prices it was about capacity in the power lines across the alps. There are other options that dont destroy as much pristine environment.They just cost slightly more

the national govt were pretty quick to trim budget, when leaving the budget the same is the same as trimming it but taking money away is savaging their budget, they are expected to mannage a massive proportion of nz's land , about a third off the top of my head, they didnt have the funding to manage it before the budget was hacked. it sent a very strong message, that they have to get more involved with the commercial business world to have any hope of providing any sort of half decent future service let allone maintain the same level of service they have been, let alone expanding....

The way I read it, while DoC are saying "We can do more with sponsorship partners", the Govt has let loose the dogs of the Ministry of Economic Development, who want increased fees, taxes & revenue in general. The Govt has told DoC, it "... must fundamentally change its approach to continue the momentum for conservation. This means not just finding new sources of revenue . . .but changing the mindset and behaviours of the organisation as a whole,'' That means exploiting their resources (parks etc)for revenue. Either more commercial interests in the parks, or tighter controls on users to harvest dollars.

well they didnt muck around, by cutting the budget so severely, it gave doc virtually little alternative to get commercial companies on board or drastically reduce their operations