A Banks Peninsula Regional Park?

Tue, 08 Feb 2005 –

Landcare Research - Could There One Day Be A Banks Peninsula Regional Park?

Meeting shares vision for Banks Peninsula Regional Park A meeting last night to present a vision for a Banks Peninsula-wide park has resulted in a call to interested parties to join a forum to review and promote the merits of the idea.

The Summit Road Society, a group dedicated to protecting and enhancing the nature and open character of the Banks Peninsula hills, commissioned Landcare Research to report on possibilities for a regional park, and how it might be established. Landcare Research presented details of its report last night.

About 70 people representing more than 30 organisations attended the meeting, which was held at Te Wai Pounamu House in Christchurch, and hosted by Ngai Tahu. Attendees included representatives of both central and local government, Ngai Tahu, Landcare Trust groups and Federated Farmers.

The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Morgan Williams; Banks Peninsula mayor Bob Parker; QEII Trust CEO Margaret McKee and National MP David Carter were present; as was John Jameson, the grandson of Harry Ell, one of the first to promote the regional park idea based on the Port Hills * Akaroa Summit roads.

Professor Ann Smith (Sustainable Business and Government Group, Landcare Research) and Dr Colin Meurk (ecologist, Landcare Research) co-authored and presented the report.

Professor Smith says it recommends further exploration of a regional park-type concept for the Peninsula, possibly based on a European model of a voluntary network of public and private lands. The park would be a vehicle for protecting natural character, and for sensitive development of business and tourism opportunities.

The report did not suggest locking up land in private ownership, stopping appropriate development of land, or interfering with private property rights. In particular, the report recognised the role of farming in the care of the land, and in maintaining a working rural landscape as a feature of the proposed park.

"The meeting encouraged participants to raise issues for future deliberation by the forum," says Professor Smith.

"There was lively input both for and against the vision. "We acknowledge that farmers have been actively involved for many years in conservation work on their properties, to restore some of their land to native bush. The Banks Peninsula Conservation Trust has worked with farmers to achieve these results. These are excellent examples for the proposed forum, and for other landowners on the Peninsula.

"We encouraged participants at the meeting to seek support from their parent organisations to join the forum, and help determine the future and direction of the park concept."

ENDS

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