Nicola Toki. Photo: Supplied
The head of a conservation society says she is deeply concerned about politicians misrepresenting the value of stewardship land.
Forest and Bird chief executive Nicola Toki told First Up that according to the law, stewardship land was actually public conservation land.
She was responding to comments made by Minister of Economic Growth Nicola Willis who told First Up about the possibility of mining on conservation land.
"DOC (Department of Conservation) actually manages a huge amount of other land, sometimes referred to as stewardship land, which is not these pristine environments - often it's just scrubby land," Willis said.
Toki said many areas were in fact pristine and of immense value, and were home to threatened birds.
"There's a bit of alternative facts going on, I think, with respect to stewardship land. It's… really naughty of the ministers, particularly senior ministers who should know better, because it's important that the public are aware of the facts."
Comment has been requested from Shane Jones' and Nicola Willis' offices.
Toki said stewardship land "belongs to New Zealand".
"It just got caught up in this terrible kind of bureaucratic limbo back in the '80s [and] '90s and never really got properly gazetted into the requisite categories - for example, national park, conservation park, all of that kind of thing. It just hasn't been filed in the right drawer, basically."
She said stewardship land made up about one third of DOC-administered land.
Toki told First Up a few years ago, a robust review was carried of 644,000 hectares of stewardship land on the West Coast of the South Island.
"They found only 0.01 percent was recommended for disposal. That's the scrubby land that that senior ministers keep trying to tell the public, is fine for digging up for mining. Well, we know that's not true.
"I'm pretty growly about the way they're telling the story."
Minister for Resources Shane Jones. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
All stewardship land is administered by the Department of Conservation, she said, and iwi also had a "fairly high interest".
"It is classified under the Conservation Act, it is looked after by DOC".
Toki said she had heard Minister for Resources Shane Jones and others talk about it not being owned by DOC.
"I want the public to be aware that there's a bit of wool being pulled over eyes, here."
She said last week, in his state of the nation address, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon focused on growth.
"He's saying mining on conservation land is going to be one of the ways that we're going to do that. And then following that, we've had ministers say 'don't worry, it's only stewardship land'."
"It kind of gives the impression that these are just these waste pits or scrub."
Toki said the statements alleviated the public's concerns.
"They say, 'Oh, it's not so bad, is it?' It is bad, it's really bad because you might have one foot on a conservation park or a national park and one foot in some beautiful mountainous environment, one foot on what is classified as stewardship land in exactly the same place."
"It's just… bureaucratic slow down that has led to this beautiful places kind of living in limbo. It doesn't mean they're any less valuable."
Appearing later on Morning Report, Jones said his plan was to marginalise "the gatekeepers hiding behind the Wildlife Act, the people trying to turn DOC into some sort of preservationist state and deny New Zealand as a livelihood".
He also said experts in "geology minerals engineering" would be making the decisions, not "insect ecologists".
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