The South-East Marine Protection Forum (SEMPF) met for two days at the Royal Albatross Centre at Tairoa Head in June. Over the two days, SEMPF members were deliberating about the values of various areas that are under discussion along the South East Coast. For an update on progress and what’s been happening, you can read the newsletter here.
The South-East Marine Protection Planning Forum/Roopu Manaaki ki te Toka has been granted a 10 month extension for their planning process so that members of the forum can continue engaging with their stakeholder groups.
Forum chair Maree Baker-Galloway says that from the outset the forum has been committed to involving as many people as possible in the planning process and that the forum still has some way to go to fully achieve that objective. She says a further 10 months will enable wider consultation and greater information gathering before proposed areas of protection are refined and then notified for the formal submission process.
October
The formal submission process will begin sometime around the start of October when the draft recommendations for public consultation will be published. This will be followed by a series of public meetings throughout the region, over a fortnight, to promote understanding of the document.
November
Public submissions will close 40 working days (2 months) after the draft recommendations are notified.
28 April
Final recommendations are scheduled to be provided to government by 28 April 2017.
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Email: sempf@doc.govt.nz
The South-East Marine Protection Planning Forum/Roopu Manaaki ki te Toka has been granted a 10 month extension for their planning process so that members of the forum can continue engaging with their stakeholder groups.
The forum, created in July 2014 with support from the Department of Conservation and the Ministry for Primary Industries, has been asked to recommend to the government what sites, from Timaru down to Waipapa Point in Southland, are deserving of marine protection and what type of marine protection the sites need.
The first stage of the planning process, consultation and information gathering, was to have been concluded by February 2016, followed by a formal submission process. However forum members were unanimous in wanting to have more time to engage with their stakeholder groups. Forum membership represents a broad spread of interested parties, including iwi, community groups, and fisheries, science, tourism and environmental interests.
Forum chair Maree Baker-Galloway says that from the outset the forum has been committed to involving as many people as possible in the planning process and that the forum still has some way to go to fully achieve that objective. She says a further 10 months will enable wider consultation and greater information gathering before proposed areas of protection are refined and then notified for the formal submission process.
“We want to reach more people so that everyone who has something to say in this formative stage can do so. We want the proposal that gets notified for the submission process to be based on the best information possible, including what the people want. We will be holding more public meetings and events over the next year and urge those who use and love our coastal waters to become involved and have their say. We need to know what people want.”
The forum wants to understand the history of the marine environment, what has changed, what people value about it, what the threats are to those values and what communities want to see happen to their marine environments in the future.
The formal submission process is now expected to begin in September 2016 and final recommendations are scheduled to be provided to government by April 2017.
For further information:
Forum Chair: Maree Baker-Galloway Ph: +64 3 471 5447 or +64 27 295 4704 Email: maree.baker-galloway@andersonlloyd.co.nz
Media Liaison: Gillian Thomas 0274272254
The South-East Marine Protection Planning Forum/Roopu Manaaki ki te Toka has requested more time for their planning process so that members of the forum can continue engaging with their people and stakeholder groups. Consultation was to have been completed by October this year. Since that request was made the forum also discovered that misleading information regarding the process has been circulated within the region. The forum believes this highlights the need to ensure that the planning process includes sufficient time for effective and well informed engagement with stakeholders.
The forum, created in July 2014 with support from the Department of Conservation and the Ministry for Primary Industries, has been asked to recommend to the government what sites, from Timaru down to Waipapa Point in Southland, are deserving of marine protection and what type of marine protection the sites need.
At this point no areas have been confirmed for marine protection or even for the formal submission process, but up to 46 options have been identified for further discussion based on their biodiversity values.
Forum chair Maree Baker-Galloway says that the forum has become aware that a set of maps, outlining some of the areas of interest which have been discussed by the Forum, have been circulated amongst the public without accompanying information required to understand their significance.
“We were made aware this week that there is a set of maps on the wall at the Owaka pub, and that a similar set had been delivered to several cribs. The explanation of the maps at the pub was completely misleading and gives the impression that all the areas marked might become protected areas. This is incorrect. What they actually are is a collection of ideas and options for debate and significant culling and refining, in fact they are earlier working drafts that have already been further refined with areas eliminated and changed.”
“Understandably this incorrect information has caused much consternation and some anger. We don’t know how widely the maps have been distributed. To correct public understanding of the maps and the areas that are being scrutinised, the Forum has now posted them on their website for public viewing www.south-eastmarine.org.nz Information on the Vision, Objectives and Guiding Principles of the Forum, as well as the types of protection being looked at, can also be found here.”
The forum has not made any decisions about the number of sites. But, the network of marine protected areas is expected to be representative of the region’s biodiversity. It is to achieve this by including examples of typical habitats. Consideration will also be given to protecting rare or outstanding habitats.
The forum will be looking for options that minimise adverse effects on Treaty settlements and existing users, and the 46 areas are a starting point for discussions about such options. The minimum requirement is for at least one area to be designated as a marine reserve, and for at least one other area to be included that may have a lesser level of protection.
Maree Baker-Galloway says that the process of refinement, before the public is formally consulted through the submission process, is exactly what the Forum is in the process of doing now. The working draft maps were used by Forum members to consult with their networks and bring feedback and more information back to the Forum.
“Depending on the information we get out of the ongoing consultation and submission process, the final set of recommended areas could look completely different to these working drafts. It really is an interactive process that is dependent on the information we have in front of us”.
“There is consultation in the form of formal submissions, and there is consultation in the form of Forum members talking to their own people or interest groups. We want to do as much of the latter as we can to get feedback on ideas before going to the formal submission stage. We expect to have a ministerial answer to our request for an extension in the New Year.”
