28 August 2008
Central government intimidation must stop
Federated Farmers Gisborne/Wairoa president Hamish Cave says big brother intimidation from central government over local
government must stop.
"The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has placed the Gisborne District Council in a difficult position. MAF
threatened the council with withdrawing the East Coast Forestry Project, a grant scheme for planting on erosion prone
land. This was six million dollars per year the council could not justify losing and therefore has been bullied into
introducing a new level of regulation for farmers to comply with," Mr Cave said.
The Gisborne District Council confirmed their decision today to regulate land use on 51,000 hectares of hill country
land in the Gisborne district. The new regulations mean that large areas of hill country will effectively be excluded
from pastoral grazing and retired for tree planting. And even tree planting in these areas will have to meet special
conditions.
"It is like owning a supermarket and being told you can only use half the shelves to display your stock. Sheep and beef
farmers are already suffering from a high dollar and low lamb and wool prices. With further loss of income these rules
will make some farms in the province unviable.
"A soil conservation plan is not about protecting environmental values at all cost. It is about enabling communities to
provide for their well being while minimising adverse effects on hill country soil erosion.
"Landowners are environmental custodians as their business depends on the natural and physical resources available to
them. It is in their best interests to protect and manage these resources. Farmers already invest large amounts of time
and capital into the management of eroding land.
"Addressing the perceived 'unsustainable' land use activities on the worst eroding areas by requiring the retirement of
land will only shift the problem as more pressure will be put on the rest of the land by farmers attempting to recoup
production losses," Mr Cave said.
Mr Cave says although the decision was another nail in the coffin for some hill country farmers he acknowledged the
council had made some useful changes and had resisted the urges from MAF, DOC and Landcare Research for erosion controls
to go much further and include a much larger land area for retirement.
ENDS