Wednesday, April 6, 2011 – Wellington

The government’s announcement today that a statutory Game Animal Council will be established confirms Forest & Bird’s fears that conservation of our forests and native wildlife will be undermined.

The management on public conservation land of some herds of introduced pest animals – which include deer, thar, chamois and pigs – will be taken from the Department of Conservation and handed to the new council.

“Forest & Bird believes DOC is best placed to ensure that conservation values remain paramount while ensuring hunters can continue to play a valuable role in controlling the numbers of these pests,” Forest & Bird Advocacy Manager Kevin Hackwell said.

“Giving priority to a narrow set of hunter interests will undermine the conservation of our forests, which have been devastated by these pest animals since their introduction to New Zealand.

“Having two organisations – DOC and the game council – administering different pests on the same land is likely to lead to confusion and a poor outcome for conservation.”

The main beneficiaries of the council are likely to be elite trophy hunters rather than ordinary hunters. Overseas trophy hunters will be paying a large part of the council’s costs, so their interests are likely to dominate the management of some of New Zealand’s most popular herds.

The charging system for the new Game Animal Council is likely to prove to be the thin end of the wedge for ordinary hunters, who will find they have to pay to hunt in their favourite forest.

“The council will be an expensive operation requiring resources to do research, manage herds, and run and police a licensing system,” Kevin Hackwell said. “So if the council is to be mainly self-funded, it will be inevitable that a user pays regime will mean new costs to ordinary hunters.”

A similar council was set up in New South Wales where hunters are charged a licence fee to hunt on public and private land. The NSW Game Council was meant to be self-funded but nearly 10 years after it was founded, it continues to receive millions of dollars in government funding.

The creation of the game council flies in the face of New Zealand’s conservation laws and international commitments, which give priority to reducing the impact of introduced pests on our native ecology.

The use of any public money to set up the Game Animal Council also runs counter to the government’s stated policy of reducing non-essential spending.

“It makes no sense to spend public money to set up an organisation which will result in a worse outcome for our forests and wildlife, and the ordinary hunting community,” Kevin Hackwell said

ENDS

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