April 19, 2018
DOC threat to gum up Ngai Takoto plan
The chair of Ngai Takoto says a commercial kauri resin and wax extraction operation is the best chance the far north iwi has to clean up a property it bought with its treaty settlement.
Northland Regional Council has given Auckland-based Resin & Wax Holdings consent to mine 400 hectares of the Ngai Takoto block, which is part of the Kaimaumau wetland.
It still needs a Crown mining permit.
Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage says peat-mining would endanger threatened wetland birds and plants, and she has asked Crown Law whether her department can challenge the consent.
Rangitane Marsden says the farm is covered with Australian wattle, and the peat mining proposal will bring jobs and the opportunity to clean up the land at little expense to Ngai Takoto.
"We can also enhance the environment which is part of our iwi responsibilities and that is our intention. Now we are not going to do that by spending all the iwi settlement money on doing that so the world thinks we are going to save it. Our view is how do we do it in a way that is cost effective, meets the needs of the iwi in terms of employing our people, and at the same time allows us to practice the kaitiakitanga responsibilities that we have," he says.
Mr Marsden says he wants to know what the Department of Conservation is doing to improve the tribe's lot, rather that challenging a project that has been four years in the planning.
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