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New Zealand: Mining in Schedule 4 Conflict: Difference between revisions
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New Zealand: Mining in Schedule 4 Conflict (view source)
Revision as of 10:29, 30 March 2015
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The reaction to the Government's proposal was swift and vociferous. Environmental and local community groups, celebrities and opposition political parties immediately lined up against the Government, the mining industry and big business interest groups to condemn any suggestion of encroaching upon land with the highest protected conservation status in the country. | The reaction to the Government's proposal was swift and vociferous. Environmental and local community groups, celebrities and opposition political parties immediately lined up against the Government, the mining industry and big business interest groups to condemn any suggestion of encroaching upon land with the highest protected conservation status in the country. | ||
== Schedule Four - | == Schedule Four - origins == | ||
Schedule Four stems from a series to reforms made to New Zealand planning and environmental laws in the late 1980s in the wake of a number of highly questionable resource-based projects implemented by the 1975-84 National Government. These resulted in a new Conservation Act in 1987 and the Resource Management Act in 1991. The former Act brought large areas of Crown land under the supervision of the newly-created Department of Conservation for primarily conservation purposes. More than 80,000 square kilometres or around 32%<ref>http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1003/MaximisingOurMineralPotential.pdf</ref> of the country is now public conservation land administered by the Department. Recreation and (appropriate) tourism were to be promoted by the Department, while all commercial activities had to obtain a “concession” from the Minister of Conservation if they were to be performed on conservation land. The Minister was to make a decision whether to grant permission for such activities by “weigh[ing] up a number of potentially competing values, amongst which conservation values were to predominate” (Bertram, 2011).<ref> Bertram, G. (2011). Mining in the New Zealand Economy. Policy Quarterly, 7(1), 13-19.</ref> | |||
Mining, however, was treated differently because egress to Crown lands for mining purposes had for some time already been granted by a different minister under the former Mining Act. Mining was exempted from the Conservation Act and, instead, special “access” was arranged as part of the new Crown Minerals Act, which superseded the Mining Act in 1991. The Crown Minerals Act "sets the broad legislative policy for prospecting, exploration and mining of Crown-owned minerals in New Zealand" (Crown Minerals, 2010). Lands under the protection of the Department of Conservation were hence less protected from mining than from other commercial activities. | |||
In 1997, the Act was amended to create an absolute mining prohibition on protected land. The amendment included a Section 61 preventing the Minister of Conservation from approving access arrangements for any Crown-owned land in Schedule Four (also newly created by the amendment). The amendment was successfully guided through parliament by a National-led government with wide cross-party support. Approximately 750,000 hectares was added to Schedule Four in 2008 and was criticised by the mining industry for lacking consultation and bypassing any comprehensive analysis of the conservation values of the land or its mineral potential<ref>Submission to Ministry of Economic Development on Schedule 4 stocktake, April 2010 http://www.coalnz.com/index.cfm/3,369,886/solid_energy_submission_lodged_on_schedule_4.pdf retrieved 3 May 2010</ref>. | In 1997, the Act was amended to create an absolute mining prohibition on protected land. The amendment included a Section 61 preventing the Minister of Conservation from approving access arrangements for any Crown-owned land in Schedule Four (also newly created by the amendment). The amendment was successfully guided through parliament by a National-led government with wide cross-party support. Approximately 750,000 hectares was added to Schedule Four in 2008 and was criticised by the mining industry for lacking consultation and bypassing any comprehensive analysis of the conservation values of the land or its mineral potential<ref>Submission to Ministry of Economic Development on Schedule 4 stocktake, April 2010 http://www.coalnz.com/index.cfm/3,369,886/solid_energy_submission_lodged_on_schedule_4.pdf retrieved 3 May 2010</ref>. | ||