Government wants to cash in on conservation

So, increased hut fees & more wardens ?. More guided tours taking precednce ?. Professional game hunting ?. More commercial concessions on beaches & waterways ?. Advertising billboards ???.

It's got to be more intrusive, more exclusive & more of NZ as an outdoor theme park than a freedom Wilderness ?.

More likely it will be quadruple the great walk prices and ensure that the only outdoors activities advertised overseas will be the great walks.
That and quadrupling the number of great walks
Tararuas Southern crossing possibly a great walk?

I'm not really up on it, but what I see on The Web is that you pay entry & amenity fees in USA National Parks.

I'm pretty sure in the movie 'Into the wild' the guy was looking at a 3 year wait to get a permit to raft down the Colarado River ?.

It's the loss of freedom so that Authority can control & charge.

"Mokanui wasnt about power prices it was about capacity in the power lines across the alps. There are other options that dont destroy as much pristine environment.They just cost slightly more"

It's also been about the way that electricity generation was privatised and deregulated, and a mad grab by state-owned companies told to compete with each other, all trying to get their pet projects approved as quickly as possible after they were let loose so they could have a bigger part of the power generation pie than state-owned competitors. Sensibility for any kind of national generation or power use strategy be damned.

http://www.nzheral...1&objectid=10810671

NZ economy needs to fit within nature's limits: Greens

Sheesh. MED's becoming the new Treasury.

Just a thought, but I'm going to go out on an unlikely limb and optimistically propose looking at requiring a larger proportional cut from existing tourist and other concessionaries. It's probably not entirely what the Ministry of Economic Development and rest of the government has in mind when pushing for more value.

How much does DoC make from them at present compared with their profits, has the Ministry of Economic Development investigated that? Can they work more efficiently, and how much is it worth to businesses to be able to operate on the conservation estate anyway compared with what's currently being charged? Do we care if the price of bungy jumping, ski-lifts, jet boat riding, tour and dropoff buses and $5000 guided walks through the estate consequently increases as long as non-commercial visiting access to the same areas without them is free?

Why have more when you can have more expensive?

i remember madpom saying his I shoudlnt be alive programme was shot outside of national parks because it was going to cost too much to film inside the park, so ow ever much it is it won't be cheap....
so air nz would have secured the rights to use photos or footage in the national parks in their advertising campaigns.
sounds like they are giving doc flights around the country at least for endangered animals. so theres a fair bit of financial value involved.
no doubt there will be professionals who will advise doc what the market value is of the deals they are going to negotiate.

If anyone wants to read DoC's actual Statement of Intent for 2012 to 2017, instead of just a Stuff article that talks about it, it's available online at http://www.doc.gov...f-intent-2012-2017/

http://doc.govt.nz...light-availability/

you see there is a low key link now on DOC's great wlks site to direct people to book flights to the walks through air new zealsnd