This improvement is the result of active management on the part of leaseholders: plant and animal pest control initiatives, planting programmes, soil conservation initiatives. The idea that pastoral farming and good environmental outcomes are mutually exclusive is simply wrong.
Ms Snoyink alleges that Land Information New Zealand (Linz) “has issued hundreds of ‘discretionary’ consents for destruction and clearance of native ecosystems”, and that, in granting these, the Commissioner of Crown Lands “has no obligation to protect natural values”.
That is fundamentally wrong. The current legislation specifically requires the commissioner to consider “the desirability of protecting the inherent values of the land concerned … and in particular the inherent values of indigenous plants and animals, and natural ecosystems and landscapes” when considering whether to allow a leaseholder to plant a tree, create a track, or carry out “any other activity affecting, or involving or causing disturbance to, the soil”. Consent from the commissioner for an activity does not remove the obligation for the lessee to also gain RMA consents from district and regional councils.