June 10, 2021
Land use restriction sparks Kaikohe hikoi
Māori landowners are marching on the Kaikohe offices of the Far North Council today to protest a policy that would restrict what they can do with their whenua.
The process to identify significant natural areas has galvanised opposition in the north from landowners and iwi who say the council failed to consult properly and is jumping the gun.
Ngāti Wai chief executive Huhana Lyndon says iwi made submissions to the Ministry for the Environment on the proposed national policy statement on protecting indigenous biodiversity that will require councils to identify significant natural areas or SNAs.
Even though that policy has not been finalised, and the Far North council has asked landowners to endorse the inclusion of SNAs in its district plan.
"The four corners of Te Taitokerau are coming to Kaikohe to voice our concern an opposition about the way SNAS have been described, the consultation, and also the control councils will have on our whenua Māori, the very small parts of whenua Māori we still have left. They will have mana whakahaere over what we can do with it rather than us, according to our tikanga underpinned by He Whakaputanga me TeTiriti," she says.
Huhana Lyndon says the hikoi will assemble at the Kaikohe RSA at 11 am before heading to the council offices.
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