According to the Department of Conservation website, its mission is
To conserve New Zealand’s natural and historic heritage for all to enjoy now and in the future.It's a noble aim, but unfortunately the new Minister of Conservation, Tim Groser, doesn't seem to believe in it. He's just altered the boundaries of a conservation park so that Solid Energy can dig a dirty great lignite mine in the middle of it in the future. Not only is this bad in itself - it's also part of Solid Energy's grand plan to build for a lignite-to-diesel plant in Southland - a dirty process which will pollute the local environment and send our greenhouse gas emissions soaring, devastating the natural heritage DoC is tasked to protect.
Someone needs to tell the Minister that open-cast coal-mines are not part of our natural heritage.
