Don't sell Middle Earth.A dramatic plea to stop the
sale of "Middle Earth" will greet many of those coming to
Monday's premiere of the third film of The Lord of the Rings
trilogy.
Forest and Bird today continued its call for a
moratorium on tenure review in the South Island high
country, and on the sale of pastoral leases to overseas
interests. It draped a banner on its Wellington building
saying "Don't sell Middle Earth - stop High Country
privatisation".
"Parts of the Lord of the Rings were
filmed in the South Island's most spectacular high country
landscapes. Tenure review on pastoral leases is resulting in
publicly owned Crown lands important for conservation and
recreation being freeholded and locked up in private
ownership," Forest and Bird's Conservation Manager, Kevin
Hackwell said.
"To date, some higher altitude lands have
been protected. Significant areas with high conservation and
recreation values at lower altitudes and around lake shores
that deserve protection have been, or are being, freeholded
and privatised," he said.
"Major changes are needed to the
tenure review process to safeguard the public interest and
special landscapes of the high country."
"The situation is
being made worse by overseas interests prepared to pay very
high prices for pastoral leases as trophy properties or to
develop for tourism or more intensive farming. Strategically
important properties such as two adjacent to iconic
landscapes like Canterbury's Porter's Pass are now fully or
part owned by absentee overseas interests.
"Rising prices
for pastoral leases make it extremely difficult for
Government agencies and the Nature Heritage Fund to afford
to buy out the lessee's interest for recreation and
conservation. Opportunities to protect important habitats
and open up land for public recreation and access are being
lost," he said.
"Spiraling land prices can make farming a
less economic land use, encouraging more intensive uses such
as viticulture and subdivision. This can dramatically change
high country landscapes with a loss of their indigenous
plants and open and expansive natural character, so
important for films like the Lord of the Rings," he
said.
"Forest and Bird calls on the government to take
time out from tenure review to develop new policy criteria
and guidelines; and to put a moratorium on the sale of
pastoral leases to overseas interests until the review of
the Overseas Investment Act is completed.
"The Overseas
Investment Act needs a major overhaul. No more high country
leases should be sold overseas until that happens," he said.
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