The early 1990s
Chatham Island black robin
1990 was a benchmark year. There were more than 100 Chatham Island black robins (cf. one breeding pair in 1979, and despite widespread scepticism on whether the species could be rescued). The New Zealand Conservation Authority was formed with 17 regional conservation boards to oversee national parks management, among other duties. The government set up the Nature Heritage Fund* to buy private land with high conservation values, to be managed by DOC.
Bill Mansfield was appointed Director-General in 1990, not least to build financial systems within DOC. But it would take until 1993-1994 for DOC to achieve clean audits, and get a Treasury tick as a "tidy operation". Pay scales still reflected the earlier hierarchy of NZFS, Lands and Survey, and the Wildlife Service.
Also in 1990 Tongariro National Park was designated a World Heritage site for natural reasons, and conservation lands in Westland, Canterbury, Otago and Fiordland were consolidated as Tewāhipounamu, doubling the area of the 1986 World Heritage designation. (Tongariro achieved a world first when it was also inscribed for cultural reasons in 1993. New Zealand's subantarctic islands were added to our World Heritage list in 1998.)
The same year an amendment to the Conservation Act was passed to improve DOC's planning, with conservation management strategies.
In 1991 Ngā Whenua Rahui** was set up to help Māori land owners conserve biodiversity on their land. DOC relationships with iwi got a boost with the establishment of the Kaupapa Atawhai managers' network, and increasing involvement in Treaty settlement processes. As a result, iwi have become more involved in managing some reserves, with the assistance of DOC.
The Resource Management Act 1991 upped the ante on DOC's advocacy role - the onus was now on DOC to show the effects on conservation values of development proposals. In taking on coastal responsibilities from the Ministries of Agriculture and Fisheries, and Transport in 1987, it fell to DOC to lead work on the New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement (completed in 1994).
Native species conservation was initially but not entirely bird focused as "species recovery plans" introduced from 1991 reveal: kōkako, kiwi, kakī (black stilt) and kakabeak were first off the blocks, as well as three species of skink. Many more plans were to follow, as the individual energy of scientists and resources allowed. In 1992 a priority-setting scheme and key individuals raised the profile of invertebrates and freshwater fish.
By this time scientists were warning of a "third wave" of native species extinctions, with weka and whio (blue duck) in some areas in marked decline. This came as a shock: it was thought that native wildlife on the mainland had reached an equilibrium with introduced predators. DOC needed to lift its game.
The national possum control plan in 1993 brought an additional boost to biodiversity conservation, as did plans to control Himalayan thar, wasps and weeds. Field centres around the country joined the lolly scramble to inject more cash into their programmes.
Restoration work at Mansion House,
Kawau Island
In respect of historic places conservation, DOC was launched with little direction or resources. When the connection with the Historic Places Trust was severed in 1993 DOC gained more clarity, with the focus on land managed by DOC to include actively-managed sites such as Mansion House on Kawau Island, the Old Government Buildings in Wellington, and many others, e.g. Māori pā sites, old gold workings, redoubts.
A minor review led to 38 staff being made redundant in 1993-1994, as part of ongoing efforts to bring the books into balance. Meanwhile there was no one figure for the number of huts and tracks DOC managed, let alone their asset value. A back-of-an-envelope calculation produced a $700 million figure, which was not recorded on DOC's balance sheets. Work started on an inventory.
* The Nature Heritage Fund was originally the Forest Heritage Fund, and is funded out of its own Vote.
** While Ngā Whenua Rahui establishes 25-year covenants, it was envisaged as a parallel organisation to the Nature Heritage Fund. (The Queen Elizabeth II National Trust, which is about permanent open space covenants on private land, was established during the Queen's 25th Jubilee year in 1977.)
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