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17/09/03
Auckland City Council presentation to the Forum supporting a strategic approach to marine protection in the Hauraki Gulf .
Marine Protection within the Hauraki Gulf
On the land we have studied and mapped the natural and physical resources of our districts, including the topography, geology, and the various habitats that exist. We use this information to make informed decisions about land use management, determining what activities are appropriate and where.
As a result, areas such as our volcanic cones, wetlands and pohutakawa clad cliff lines have been protected because of their environmental or cultural heritage significance. Large areas of land have been set aside as reserves to provide for our social and recreational needs. And industrial, commercial and residential uses of land have been controlled to ensure they do not adversely impact on those natural features and habitats we consider to be worthy of protection.
By contrast, we have not comprehensively study or mapped our marine topography, geology or identified the various habitats that exist within the marine environment of the Gulf. However, this has not prevented us from making marine use decisions about the types of activities that can occur within the Gulf or where these should take place.
It is logical to presume that the approach taken to land use management was not adopted for the marine environment because of the difficulty in physically seeing what exists beneath the water or because we didn't have the same knowledge or understanding of marine ecosystems as we do for terrestrial ecosystems and terrestrial ecosystem management.
However, new technology now enables us to study and map the marine environment in the same manner as we have done for the land. Likewise, our knowledge and understanding of the marine environment, its ecosystems and biodiversity has significantly advanced. It is therefore not necessary, or appropriate, to continue to make marine use decisions based on limited information.
Auckland City Council therefore supports the proposal of the Department of Conservation to undertake a systematic approach to the identification and protection of marine biodiversity within the Hauraki Gulf .
As mentioned in the report by the Department of Conservation, the goal of this process is to identify what habitats we actually have in the Gulf, demonstrate a clear and systematic approach to the identification of significant or sensitive marine habitats, and then, to make this information available to the public so we can develop an overall plan for marine protection within the Gulf.
This is a large undertaking by DOC, with support from Mfish, but support and assistance from Forum members may make this process easier. The majority of Forum members may have some information on the marine environment within our areas, which may aid in the identification and assessment of marine habitats. We also have well established communication networks that could be used to raise public awareness about marine biodiversity and provide information on the work being undertaken by DOC and also to encourage people to get involved in the consultation stage of this process.
I anticipate that the outcome of this process will offer long-term benefits for the Hauraki Gulf in terms of:
- Protecting our significant marine habitats and maintaining biological diversity within the Gulf
- Ensuring better integrated management of our marine resources and how we allocate the use of marine space
and also
- Focusing community marine protection efforts to those sites identified through this process
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