15 Apr 2019

Crown must be guardian of NZ high country - Forest & Bird

From Morning Report, 6:42 am on 15 April 2019

Environmental groups say the government's proposal for managing Crown pastoral leases, now tenure review has been scrapped, does not go far enough. Submissions closed on Friday on the government's plan to manage the 171 Crown pastoral lease properties, covering 1.2 million hectares of land. The changes included making the Commissioner of Crown Lands more accountable and transparent and ensuring natural landscapes and indigenous biodiversity are safeguarded. The Environmental Defence Society and Forest and Bird put in a joint submission. Forest and Bird's Otago Southland regional manager, Sue Maturin told Kate Gudsell nature in the high country is in crisis because of the tenure review.