Kawarau/Remarkables Conservation Area’s reclassification

In December last year, DOC announced the first of two rounds of public consultation on the Kawarau/Remarkables Conservation Area’s reclassification. Submissions close 26 February 2021.

The Kawarau/Remarkables Conservation Area includes over 33,000 hectares of high country with outstanding recreational and conservation values, and is currently classified as stewardship land (see map on left).

Since 2017, FMC has been campaigning for the creation of a Remarkables National Park.

A comprehensive document about the recreational and conservation values of the area is available here. This document was produced by FMC, supported by Emeritus Professor Sir Alan Mark and Forest & Bird, after extensive consultation with recreational users of the Remarkables, and with ecologists.

Although the Kawarau/Remarkables Conservation Area only covers part of the proposed National Park, we see the reclassification of this area as a crucial step in the creation of a Remarkables National Park. FMC has therefore written a submission on the reclassification of the Kawarau/Remarkables Conservation Area.

We would like to encourage our members to also submit on the area’s reclassification.

FMC’s submission in a nutshell

FMC recommends that:

• The ecosystem values, the human footprint and the ecological and recreational carrying capacity of the area should be thoroughly assessed to support the reclassification process.
• The Department of Conservation should seek a classification that honours and strongly protects nature and supports “on-nature’s-terms” recreation, with minimal or no modification.
• In light of NZSki’s intention to expand the Remarkables Skifield into the headwaters of Doolans Creek, FMC sees Doolans Creek as a crytallisation of land use tensions that must be assertively resolved in the reclassification process. FMC therefore recommends that the Department of Conservation focus on a Kawarau/Remarkables Conservation Area reclassification that will enshrine Doolans Creek’s quiet wildness. Doolans Creek should not be given a more liberal classification than the rest of the Kawarau/Remarkables Conservation Area to enable activities that are damaging to conservation and recreation.
• The Department of Conservation should only consider national park and national reserve classification for the Kawarau/Remarkables Conservation Area.
• That classification combinations should be avoided as far as possible.

Photo at top: Two Mile Hut, Kawarau / Remarkables Conservation Area. (c) D Hegg