Confusion surrounds the Department of Conservation’s promise to partially fund the world’s largest predator proof fence at Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari, says Taranaki-King Country MP Barbara Kuriger.
Helen Hughes at Maungatautari. Photo: Chris Gardner
Barbara Kuriger
A cash flow crisis at the $5000 a day 3400ha project could force the closure of Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari by the end of August after the loss of $1.5 million of DOC baseline funding over four years.
Sanctuary Mountain general manager Helen Hughes has been told by Conservation Minister Tama Potaka it is an operational matter and DOC Waikato District operations manager Jane Wheeler hopes “something can be worked out”.
Kuriger, who was present at the May meeting when Hughes made Potaka aware of the project’s plight, is joining Sanctuary Mountain’s board and DOC representatives for a meeting next month to discuss the cash flow crisis. The meeting will either be held on August 5 online, or on August 26 in person.
Conservation minister Tama Potaka
“From the conversations I’ve had, there seems to be confusion about what was promised in the first place,” Kuriger said.
Sanctuary Mountain’s baseline funding was initially divided by DOC, Waikato Regional Council and Waipā District Council.
“The third is to keep the place going,” Kuriger said.
“That’s where I am seeing my part of the discussion going. Seeing what was promised and making sure it is delivered. If we sit around a table, we can get things straight. I don’t like to see what’s been happening to that precious place.”
DOC has withdrawn from baseline funding, switching to project specific funding – and that leaves the trust with less cash to fund the operation of the predator proof fence.
Over the last four years DOC had supported Maungatautari with $589,000 of Jobs for Nature funding to support the work of mountain rangers, $441,000 worth of threatened species monitoring funding, such as kākāpō and hihi (stitch bird), and $140,000 worth of operating costs funding.
