Introduction
Crossing Awaroa Inlet
Abel Tasman National Park
Conservation is big business in New Zealand – one-third of our country is set aside as national parks and other conservation areas – but do we really know just how big?
In the 2005/06 financial year, the budget of the Department of Conservation was $280.8 million. Some 47 per cent of this money was spent managing natural heritage, our landscapes and our species. Another 41 per cent was spent managing the enormous recreation opportunities provided on conservation land. DOC manages $400 million worth of backcountry huts, walking tracks, bridges and other visitor infrastructure.
It is well known that our natural environment and the recreation opportunities in it underpin tourism in New Zealand. Tourism contributes around $17.2 billion, or 9.4 per cent, to GDP. Overseas tourism accounted for $7.4 billion or 18.5 per cent of our exports in the year to 31 March 2004, making the industry New Zealand’s largest foreign exchange earner.
The tourism figures suggest that there is a significant economic benefit derived from the protection and management of public conservation lands. But tourism is just one small part of the picture. There is also additional economic value in mining and electricity generation, filming, the harvesting of fish and game, the pursuit of health and wellbeing, and ecosystem services, such as water/soil conservation and healthy habitats, all of which of are provided in public conservation areas.
To assess just how big a business conservation is in New Zealand, the Department of Conservation has commissioned independent Christchurch economists Butcher Partners Ltd to measure the economic impacts of the direct use of public conservation land and DOC management at a regional level at three sites, using economic impact analysis.
The West Coast was chosen for the first study largely because public conservation land accounts for 84 per cent of the region’s total area. It was expected that the economic impacts of tourism and mining, in particular, would be significant. The study was completed in July 2004.
Abel Tasman National Park and the Queen Charlotte Track were the subject of a second study, completed in May 2005. With 180,000 visitors to the national park, and 30,000 walking the busiest section of the QCT each year, the focus was on tourism impacts on Nelson-Tasman and Marlborough.
In studying the water supply services provided by Te Papanui Conservation Park in Otago, Butcher Partners measured their value in terms of costs that would be incurred to Dunedin City Council, hydroelectricity generators and farmers needing water for irrigation if the water supply ceased to exist. This study was completed in late 2005.
As well, two studies by the New Zealand Tourism Research Institute have been included, one on the impacts of the Mt Ruapehu ski industry on the economy of Ohakune and the surrounding region commissioned by the Ski Areas Association of New Zealand and published in March 2002, and a report completed in December 2005 for New Zealand Trade and Enterprise on the economic significance of the Southern Lakes Ski Areas.
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