On June 11th and 12th the FMC celebrated its 80th anniversary with a two day conference at Te Papa. The Federated Mountain Clubs of NZ (FMC) is an organisation which operates at a national level, representing 82 tramping & mountaineering clubs (including the WTMC) and through these a total of more than 15,000 members that actively enjoy the outdoors in NZ.
The conference opened with an impressive powhiri, linking the Maori traditional connection to the land with FMC’s recreational appreciation of the land. After this, as is usual at an anniversary, the conference proceeded with a brief overview of the history of the FMC. It was most interesting to see what the achievements have been and changes made since the first big conference on wilderness protection in 1981. This retrospective view almost automatically gave a sense of achievement and pride to all conference attendees. Since 1987 the concept of a ‘wilderness area’ has been part of the Conservation Act, and in the last couple of years nine NZ wilderness areas have been designated and managed.
The theme of the conference was “Forever Wild” and, although the catering was a notch above the usual bush cooking, the topics covered in several speeches and workshops were food for thought, and also related to the aims of the WTMC.
Conservation, untouched nature and the intrinsic value of the outdoors were intertwined with impressive talks of high quality, challenging, passionate, encouraging and invigorating. It was interesting to take a few steps back and look at the activities of our WTMC from a wider perspective. And Craig Potton’s slideshow definitely made most of us start thinking about the exit sign and our packs, with a wish to head for the bush right away rather than attend a conference.
Here are some topics discussed during the sessions:
- Pest control: Without adequate pest control NZ will lose its diversity and flora and fauna will rapidly become extinct. Pests are the biggest threat to NZ conservation and moving fast! Pest control can be ‘outsourced’ to commercial operators, but also worked on through voluntary work (community involvement). Pest-control has the potential to become a new type of outdoor activity, similar to tree planting and track maintenance.
- 1080: Is this poison essential to preserve birdlife and biodiversity? Parliament had instigated a survey into this subject, and the clear recommendation is to battle pests where possible. At this moment 1080 is the only tool available with the right high impact, suitable for a wide scale approach, although it does have limited side effects. Forest & Bird put forward the statement that pest eradication is a matter of money. For example, we have the technology to put a cattle grid and a fence at the Auckland isthmus and get rid of all pests in Northland, if we decide we want it! Apparently our politicians make the choice to spend the public money elsewhere.
- Exclusive capture: By Act public land is for everybody to enjoy, but you may need to cross private land to access public land and the private owner doesn’t always allow access. In 2008 the Walking Access Act established a commission at governmental level to improve access to public land. Their activities are described on the site http://www.walkingaccess.govt.nz. If there are any issues regarding tracks or road ends providing access to public parks or conservation areas please contact them. The commission designed a mapping system indicating what parts of the country are public or private land (http://wams.org.nz).
- Geographical imbalance: Most of the NZ population lives North of Hamilton, but most of the National Parks are in the south. This gives a strong ambivalence when talking about accessibility and favouring our national pride. It is costly to access the wilderness (future fuel prices are likely to increase), so most people won’t actually experience it, and it leaves a carbon footprint to get there.
- Tomorrow’s wilderness user: The wilderness needs to be protected for the ‘future generation’ but this will vary widely from today’s tramping population mix. How do we raise awareness amongst, and subsequently involve, a wider range of people such as Indian, Asian, Maori and young adults? The average tramper in a tramping club is pakeha, male and 45 yrs old, so it is important for any club to link to the future wilderness users.
- Intrinsic value: FMC advocates the intrinsic value of wilderness; the value that can not be expressed in monetary terms. Making decisions purely on the basis of a balance sheet may lead to short term financial gains but would result in loss of habitat, diversity and would cause irreversible damage. Therefore mining for coal / lignite etc. or damming rivers is strongly opposed by FMC.
- DoC’s balance sheet: DoC’s operating budget is currently around $100 per NZ resident, for which it looks after about 30% of the land area of NZ. Doubling this budget to 1.0% of the national budget would bring DoC in a position where it could fulfil most of its conservation goals. However, after several budget cuts DoC is forced to become more ‘commercial’, looking for alternative income sources. Should e.g. tourists pay for access to National Parks, or do they already pay enough via GST while visiting NZ? What fees should be paid by commercial tourist operators, mining companies, etc? There now is a large variety in fee levels within the country, and currently only 3% of DoC income is from these concessions.
- Commercial use: The current government is pushing DoC to provide more “front-country” services in an attempt to attract money from tourists and potentially from commercial operators. Front-country relates more to recreation than to conservation. It also leads to a reduction of resources available for the back-country, but might attract “tomorrow’s users”.
- Permolat: This is a purely web-based community on the West Coast with the aim to restore local huts and tracks, without getting bogged down in bureaucracy. This could be a new format to get individuals into conservation activities. Started as an anarchistic community of greenies, rednecks and outdoor-lovers to do up a hut or a track section, it now has local support from DoC, and from local and overseas friends giving donations. On their web-forum the ‘workers’ are encouraged by people who, for example, built huts for the NZFS many decades ago. Why wait for DoC to get a budget if you can hold a hammer yourself? Refer http://remotehuts.onlinegroups.net/groups/permolat
On Saturday night the FMC held the annual AGM. I won’t trouble you with the dry facts of this meeting, however I believe that as a WTMC member you should be informed about the following:
- Be aware that $10 of your WTMC membership fee goes to the FMC, for which in return you get an awful lot of discounts, a national representation, and a well established influence at governmental level.
- Our member Ian Harrison won a price in the photo competition and he was runner up in the same category with a second photo. Well done!
- Our member, Bernie Smithyman, didn’t get elected for executive, but we’re sure this will only make him even stronger and double-charged for next year’s elections.
Any questions? Specific viewpoints? Disagreement? Please share it with the committee or on the club forum and we’ll bring it forward to the FMC. Alternatively we’re happy to find your expression of thoughts in the next newsletter!
“Conservation should be seen as an investment, not as a cost”