Newly-worded Urewera plan up for submissions
20 May 2017
BIG changes in Te Urewera’s management plan include a reduction of Crown appointees on the , an increase of Tuhoe representatives, different terminology, and its length.
Te Urewera chairman Tamati Kruger said most management plans were about 200 pages long, and this one was only 27 pages. It is called Te Kawa o Te Urewera and was released yesterday.
Mr Kruger said the plan contained principles, virtues, references to standards, nature being permanent and people having to live with the land, rather than off the land.
“The narrative has been written in a way that the land is speaking, which may seem quirky to some people.
“I’m wondering how a reader will respond to that. It acknowledges that land doesn’t really need people, it is the other way around.
“As people, we need to adjust our reality.”
Mr Kruger said the practical stuff still existed, it had just been moved into a separate document.
“Practical people who are after a permit, a licence or a concession and just want to know rules, might be disrupted by the changes. But we assure them the annual plan and the operational plan, which outline spending, budgets and all of those things, are there.
“But they will come up on an annual basis and be controlled by this principle document, Te Kawa.”
Preparation of the Te Urewera Management Plan was a key task for Te Urewera Board. The first draft principles of management are now open for public submissions until July 20.
Te Urewera was recognised as a legal entity three years ago and is the former Te Urewera National Park, which incorporates Lake Waikaremoana.
Mr Kruger said by 2018 the Crown appointees on the would drop from four to three, and the Tuhoe Iwi membership would rise from four to six.
For the Government it was an example of a Crown and iwi relationship working really well, he said.
“So the view that you and I, the public, are still paying for the whole thing is not correct.
“It’s not a free ride for Tuhoe. Over three years Tuhoe’s contribution, operationally and financially, now equals that of the Crown.”
Mr Kruger said the Department of Conservation continued to make a significant contribution to the operational side. But over the next few years, the Crown would have less to do with governance, he said.
The word “concession” had been replaced with “friendship agreements”, which was what it would now be called if someone applied for a licence to operate a business, or shoot scenes for a movie.
Until such time as that plan was approved, the Te Urewera National Park Management Plan 2003 would continue to apply.
