Election 2017 - Party Policies - Environment - Conservation
27th May 17, 9:47am
by
Conservation
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- Sell Landcorp, an environmentally harmful Government activity, and put the proceeds into a Sanctuary Trust for applicants who wish to operate inland sanctuaries for native wildlife.
- Introduce pricing of road use to reduce congestion and emissions, following the examples set in London, Singapore, and Stockholm.
- Read more here
- Restore the Department of Conservation’s (DOC) role as nature’s primary defender. By doubling DOC’s baseline conservation budget within five years we can double the number of DOC rangers and the technical staff and scientists who support them, and double the amount of pest control on conservation land.
- Stop all new mining on the conservation estate, strengthen legal protection for threatened species and the places where they live, and create a strong, overarching conservation action plan. Create New Zealand’s largest marine mammal sanctuary to protect endangered blue whales from destructive mining.
- Support community-based conservation and conservation on private land by doubling the government funding they can receive and better co-ordinate the great work of conservation volunteers nationwide.
- Put in place an immediate 20 cent charge on single-use plastic bags, with 15 cents going to community groups for environmental clean-ups and 5 cents for research and development into alternatives.
- Commit to a goal of zero waste to landfill in New Zealand by 2050.
- Read more here, here, and here.
- Work in partnership with local government to provide adequate recycling and composting services in all regions.
- Actively explore means of substantially reducing plastic waste, and work with all relevant sectors and the public to do so.
- Ensure that product stewardship schemes, including for tyres, are widely deployed to reduce waste and to encourage ways of commercialising waste where there is a potential market.
- Require that policy and practice for the management and disposal of hazardous waste is monitored and reported on and, where appropriate, enhancements implemented.
- Establish a $75m a year Tourism and Conservation Infrastructure Fund to pay for projects that will improve the experience of visitors to New Zealand and enhance our natural environment.
- Read more here and here.
- Campaign for the reduction of all forms of waste.
- Ban plastic bags and incentivise the provision of more sustainable alternatives.
- Provide free reusable cups for hot drinks and incentivise the use of reusable cups through subsidising hot drinks.
- Support a levy on all tourists entering Aotearoa to improve infrastructure and impacts on the environment.
- Support research and development of a natural alternative to 1080; and introduce tax breaks for renewable energy research and projects.
- Read more here.
- National will more than double the amount of funding available through the Department of Conservation Community Fund, from $4.6 million to $10 million a year.
- Implement the Threatened Species Strategy to expand native wildlife protection.
- Build on the early success of Predator Free 2050 by investing $69.2m over the next four years to boost community groups and expand DOC's operations.
- Set up a nationwide network for tyre recycling and provide funding assistance to implement disposal options.
- Continue the cleanup of contaminated sites such as Calwell Slipway in Nelson and Kopeopeo Canal in Whakatane; and introduce tougher fines for illegal dumping.
- Read more here, here, here, and here.
- Advance the development of alternatives to landfill disposal including better product stewardship to collect, manage and recover toxic but valuable electronic waste.
- Ensure local government uses Work for the Dole on conservation and weed and pest control activities and for environmental activities.
- Ensure appropriate deterrents exist to deter poaching and trafficking of protected species; and increase support 'threatened species' recovery programmes.
- End race based Conservation like Ngā Whenua Rahui scheme and better support those entities that voluntary protect land and resources in private ownership.
- Rationalise pastoral leases where grazing exists to promote ecologically sustainable land use, with special attention to 'protected natural areas’.
- Read more here
- A conservation levy: $25 paid on all tourist visas before entry to New Zealand, with 100% Of that revenue to be used for maintaining and upgrading the conservation estate.
- Establish a commission, akin to the Land and Water Forum, to help establish a consensus on long-term pest control strategies.
- Immediately propose a trial in a place such as the West Coast (ideal because it is clearly defined geographically by the Southern Alps, Tasman sea and Fiordland) to set up a proper study where we use traps and other non-poison pest control options in one area and 1080 in another and have it truly tested.
- Make funding available to expand the community initiatives that seek to aid our pest-free by 2050 strategy.
- Introduce a $10 million per year contestable fund for the purpose of funding innovative research into New Zealand’s environment.
- Read more here and here.
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