Balancing indigenous rights with recovery CONSERVATION COMMENT

• Published date: 10 August 2022

Some fear this change will weaken environmental protections. Iwi say it will end being excluded from ancestral relationships with the whenua. The independent Options Development Group report for DoC found tangata whenua leaders see national parks as “gated areas where we are obstructed from our customary practices, locked out from decision-making and held back from continuing our relationship with sites of deep spiritual or cultural significance”

Radically, the report recommends a review of the ownership and classification of our conservation land — a third of our country. It proposes a greater say in conservation management for whanau, hapu, iwi and Maori organisations towards a shared vision that provides for “the maintenance, enhancement and sustainable use of whenua, moana, wai and the species that rely upon them”.

It is the term “sustainable use” that has some feeling uneasy.

Environmental Defence Society chief executive Gary Taylor says integrating a Maori world view into conservation could be helpful for nature and an important cultural redress.

However, he stops short of supporting the call to allow customary harvest (should wildlife populations sustain it): “My cultural norms are offended by the idea of the cultural harvest of native birds. But in my head, I can see that if you’ve got an abundant supply, and it’s important for Maori cultural values to take them, then ... ” He doesn’t finish his sentence.

Any conservationist can imagine a utopia in which once-threatened birds are so prolific they spill out from conservation areas and are numerous to the point of being a nuisance.

But how do we return to this abundance, last known centuries ago?

The protection versus use debate is not new. This is an old-as-the-hills conflict that has divided Indigenous peoples and conservationists globally.

Yet, report co-author Aroha Mead cites other examples like Canada and Australia having realised that enabling indigenous people to own and manage public conservation land can aid...