QE2 Trust directors meet in the Bay and view local covenants
Sir Brian Lochore addresses the 100-strong crowd who met QEII trustees at the Tukurua Swamp. Photo: Gerard Hindmarsh.
Directors and staff of New Zealand’s Queen Elizabeth II Trust came together in Golden Bay last week for a two-day programme. They held a board meeting in the Takaka Fire Station on Tuesday, while on Wednesday they were taken out on a field trip around three local covenants – Tukurua Swamp, Soper’s Hill at Rototai and Te Hapua on Shannel Courtney’s land up Pohara Valley – where they rubbed shoulders with numerous locals associated with land conservation.
A big name amongst the visitors was trust chair and ex-All Black Sir Brian Lochore, while other directors included Yvonne Sharp (Kerikeri), Bernard Card (Porirua), Edward Ellison (Otakau), Megan Balks (Te Awamutu) and James Hunter (Porongahau). Trust CEO Margaret McKee said the trust has five meetings a year and these are always held in provincial locations.
“This allows directors and staff to get around the country, and meet with a whole range of covenantors and other supporters within communities, so as to hear issues first hand. It’s much more valuable that sitting in a meeting room in Wellington, and it’s a great chance to bring covenantors together and celebrate private land conservation. It’s about time Golden Bay had a turn.”
The trust employs 12 staff based in their Wellington office and another 27 part-time regional representatives who work with landowners throughout the country. Nelson/Tasman’s representative is Philip Lissaman, who oversees the 129 covenants totalling 2,526 hectares in the region, with another 23 pending.
“I try to get around them all at least once every two years. Golden Bay has some spectacular landforms and ecosystems that we are absolutely thrilled to have been involved with local landowners to preserve.”
The QEII National Trust, an independent statutory organisation, was set up in 1977 to encourage and promote, for the benefit of all New Zealanders, the provision, protection, preservation and enhancement of open space. Its core activity is to secure long-term protection of natural and cultural features on private land, usually by the legal mechanism of a QEII open space covenant. This is a legally binding protection agreement, registered on the title of the land, that is initiated voluntarily but once in place binds the current and all subsequent landowners. Each covenant is unique. It can apply to the whole property or just part of it. Private property rights are not jeopardised by a covenant - the landowner retains full ownership and management of the land. Visitor access is available only with the landowner’s prior permission, and the covenanted area is exempt from rates and eligible for help with fencing and pest control. The average size of a covenant in New Zealand is 29.6 hectares, with the largest being 6,564 hectares.
Next week The GB Weekly will profile some Golden Bay covenants.
Gerard Hindmarsh
