Drones, fee changes, recent prosecutions, differential pricing and more...
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Our relationship with you and the business you operate on public conservation land is important to us. This newsletter is designed to help you run your business and contains practical information relevant to your permit or concession. If you have any feedback on how we can improve Business on the Green, please let us know.
Conservation Week – your chance to get involved
This year during Conservation Week (15-23 September) DOC is aiming to raise awareness of the biodiversity crisis that New Zealand faces, its causes and what we can to do address it.
If you are keen to run your own conservation activity, we can provide key artwork, messages, posters, and hash tags; list your events on our website; and possibly share some of your content on our social media channels. We hope you will come on board and help us to spread our message while telling your story. Contact your local office to discuss your idea.
Ongoing focus on concessions compliance
We remain interested in knowing about businesses operating on public conservation land without a concession or permit. Recent prosecutions taken include:
- A West Coast farmer sentenced to 120 hours community work (for grazing without a concession on a conservation area)
- A Southland farmer required to complete diversion, substantial remediation, pay investigation costs, and protect adjoining private land from development (for undertaking unauthorised drainage works without a concession on a reserve)
- A pilot completed diversion including contribution towards prosecution costs and a donation to charity (for landing an aircraft in Mt Cook National Park without a concession).
Our summer compliance programme will target a range of high use areas. It is our intention that those who are operating illegally this summer are prosecuted.
As always, if you see any suspicious or illegal activity on public conservation land, please report it to our 24-hour hotline 0800 DOCHOT.
New drone web information
Anyone using a drone over public conservation land, for any reason, must have a concession from DOC. Last edition we mentioned our new recreational drone use and commercial drone use pages with information for applicants.
We have now also developed pages on Areas we recommend you apply to use a drone, Using a drone in National Parks (including information on which parks we recommend you apply), Drone safety and Flying your drone near birds and Marine mammals.
Expanding the Great Walks network
DOC is currently running a process to identify potential new Great Walks. There are seven walks under consideration:
- Te Paki Coastal Walk, Northland
- Aotea Track, Great Barrier Island
- Timber Trail, Waikato
- Tarawera Trail, Bay of Plenty
- Queen Charlotte Track, Marlborough
- Waiau-Toa/Molesworth, Canterbury
- Hump Ridge Track, Fiordland.
DOC will identify two or three finalists for in-depth consideration in August and we expect to make an announcement of, at least, one additional Great Walk in December 2018
New booking service goes live
Bookings for DOC's nine Great Walks were successfully opened on our new booking system on 12 June this year.
One of the key benefits of the new system is how easy it is for visitors to make and manage their own bookings. All part of keeping pace with today’s visitor expectations and aligning with the government’s digital priorities to make our services more effective and accessible.
We are now working on enhancing the booking service and adding new products.
Aircraft landings Ngapunatoru Glacier – Ombudsman's report
The Ombudsman has recommended DOC cancel a trial which raised the daily aircraft landing limits on Ngapunatoru Plateau as the elevated numbers were inconsistent with the Fiordland National Park Management Plan. The trial was established in February 2016 to balance the increased demand for aircraft landings with the impact on conservation.
The trial has been cancelled and limits reverted to pre-trial landing numbers. We’re currently determining the best way to allocate landings to align with the Management Plan. We’ll be working with our Treaty Partner Ngāi Tahu throughout the allocation process.
CMS – our handshake with the community
Conservation Management Strategies (CMS) are 10-year regional strategies developed in consultation with the public. Here are the strategies that are currently under review:
These strategies are important for you because they prescribe some of the things that can and can’t happen in a region and focus on outcomes for places that are special to communities and tangata whenua. We will let you know when these CMS are ready for consultation so you can have your say.
Public consultation on RMA processes
We are currently reviewing our engagement in a number of Resource Management Act (RMA) processes. This has involved talking to the people who participate in this work. Contact us on systemsdesign@doc.govt.nz if you have any questions or feedback.
Differential pricing for international walkers
We are trialling differential pricing, on four of our Great Walks (Milford, Kepler, Routeburn and Abel Tasman) starting from October 2018. This means international walkers will pay around double the amount of Kiwis for these walks.
The benefits of this trial range from better understanding the use of pricing to help manage high visitor demand, through to increased revenue and balancing the costs of running the Great Walks between taxpayers and visitors.
Routeburn Track. Image: Sarah Wilcox
Importantly we also aim to ensure people who live in New Zealand can access these outstanding experiences, whilst overseas visitors better contribute to their priceless bucket list adventure.
So far, the results are that demand is greater than ever, Kiwis are booking, more Kiwi children are walking the tracks and higher revenues are being realised as international visitors continuing to book in these locations. Results of the trial will be evaluated in 2019.
Addressing tourism pressures
There has been a large increase in international and domestic visitors to public conservation land in recent years. In Budget ’17, DOC received $76m over four years to help address these tourism pressures, with funding directed to addressing immediate pressures, helping spread the load, connecting people to conservation values and experiences, and addressing infrastructure risks.
You will see items about some of this work in this newsletter, including: expanding our Great Walks, differential pricing for international visitors, our focus on concessions compliance and the new online booking services. We have also put more resources into specific sites under pressure, increased our longer-term planning, improved our website to promote lesser known experiences and we’re addressing infrastructure issues at key sites.
DOC represents at TRENZ
DOC delivered stronger conservation messages to international travel trade at TRENZ this year. Our focus was:
- Experiences with capacity as alternatives to locations that are experiencing pressures; regional and seasonal dispersal; and visitor safety
- How the quality of nature influences the visitor experience and the need for us all to contribute to its protection
- Kaitiakitanga – how we behave in nature and around wildlife to respect it and protect it for future generations.
DOC stand at the Edgar Centre in Dunedin,
7-10 May
There was a good response and strong interest in conservation initiatives that travel buyers and visitors could contribute to. Our Advisor had about 20 in-depth appointments, discussing existing concessions and the overall concessions process, with New Zealand tourism and international trade businesses.
Mycoplasma Bovis – what should you do
If you are grazing on public conservation land you should follow MPI’s advice to limit the spread of Mycoplasma Bovis. Visit the MPI website regularly to ensure you are up to date with recommended practice for on-farm biosecurity.
Changes affecting beehive concessionaires
There are a few changes happening that will make it easier for beehive concessionaires to provide activity return data. This includes:
- Issuing reminders earlier so you have more time to prepare and submit the return on or before your due date.
- A pre-populated Excel template that will be emailed when your return is due. You just need to fill in the gaps, save the document and then email it to us on or before your due date.
Keep an eye out for the reminder email – it will include the new template, along with a link to a video and a written guide showing you what to do.
Development of the new template has taken longer than anticipated, our apologies it wasn’t available in June as previously advised.
Grazing and easement fee changes
The activity fees for grazing and easements have changed. This follows a comprehensive review to ensure the fee being applied is fair and equitable. See Ongoing concession fees for more information.
If you have an existing concession there will not be any change to your fees until your usual rental review date or when your concession comes up for renewal, whichever occurs sooner. Guiding and filming fees are also currently under review.
Leave No Trace
DOC encourages visitors to public conservation land to follow the Leave No Trace principles which promote responsible outdoor recreation.
Leave No Trace New Zealand offers training courses to educate land managers, outdoor educators, tourism operators, and the wider public. See training overview if you are interested in attending a course or running one for your staff.
Is there something you would like to see in this newsletter? Email us at businessonthegreen@doc.govt.nz
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National Office | PO Box 10420 | Wellington 6143 | New Zealand
