June 14, 2021
Samuels’ solution for SNA mess tikanga reserves
Former Minister Dover Samuels says a new system needs to be developed to protect sensitive areas on Māori land.
The Government has asked councils to stop work on identifying so-called sensitive natural areas until it has finalised a national policy statement on protecting indigenous biodiversity.
Mr Samuels says the backlash in the north against SNAs would not been as intense if the Northland Regional Council had continued with the Māori working party he set up while a member.
He has told Ministers and Far North mayor John Carter there are ways to create reserves under tikanga Māori so they remain under the ownership and control of whānau and hapū.
"The council should resource those people who own those whenua to bring this about so it can lie parallel with the Pākehā concept of reserves but it becomes operative under the tikanga and it is not part of any district or regional plan that can be changed by an application under the Resource Management Act, simple as that," he says.
Mr Samuels says Māori were rightly concerned about policies created supposedly for conservation because they had lost thousands of hectares to councils in the past for reserves or for rate arrears.
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