ACT backs legal certainty for Fiordland’s successful hunter-led conservation

ACT Conservation spokesperson Cameron Luxton is welcoming the Hunting and Fishing Minister’s moves toward designating wapiti as a Herd of Special Interest in Fiordland National Park, calling it a win for conservation, regional tourism, and common sense.

“The Fiordland Wapiti Foundation has spent years doing what government departments struggle to do. They manage the herd, trap pests, maintain huts, and protect native species like the blue duck/whio. And they do it all without asking taxpayers for a cent,” says Luxton.

Forest and Bird has opposed the move, comparing it to creating a 'sanctuary for stoats.'

“That sort of rhetoric says more about Forest and Bird's eco-fundamentalist ideology than the facts. We're never going back to a pre-human ecology. Allowing hunter-led management of the wapiti population frees up DoC resources to deal with greater threats to native wildlife, such as stoats and rats.

"Forest and Bird needs to wake up and realise that hunters are conservationists too."

Luxton says ACT backs the Government’s move to ensure Herds of Special Interest can be recognised in national parks, as originally intended.

“When passionate hunters are already getting the job done, the role of government should be to get out of the way. Or at the very least, provide legal certainty so they can keep going."

Editor's note: Cameron Luxton is the sponsor of the Conservation (Membership of New Zealand Conservation Authority) Amendment Bill, which would ensure hunters and fishers are represented on the Conservation Authority, just as Forest and Bird is already. The Bill is currently in Parliament's member's bill ballot.