Saturday 26 November 2016

Still working for Red Cross 45 years later


It took me a while to find a picture of Bob that exemplifies this larger-than-life man as I know him. He's a polar explorer, writer, manager, humanitarian, bon-vivant... but most of all he loves life with an infectious enthusiasm. (Joe Lowry)


Some time ago Joe Lowry asked me to write an article for his blog, 'what it is like to be a man.'
I find being a man is a mixture of roles: protector, provider, clown, outdoor educator, trainer to my children and wife (I have seven children), sensitive to all the females in my life, and a good friend to my mates.
The biggest influence on me was my Mum. She was the one that really shaped me and led me to humanitarian work. Eileen, was born deaf, as was her younger brother Ray, and in those days, anyone born deaf was considered deaf and dumb. But my Mother was a bright woman, she enjoyed Shakespeare, read poetry and she taught me to sew and knit, and to write well.
I loved my Mother dearly and was horrified by children’s cruelty towards her. I remember older kids throwing clods at her and then as a five year old, running down the road chasing after them and trying to knock the shit out of them, but often they would knock the shit out of me. I learned that being a boy (man) was defending yourself and other less fortunate. Bloody knees, black eyes and continuous cuts and bruises were my medals of honour.
When you have a disabled member of your family, someone you love dearly, and people discriminate against them, you grow up with a huge awareness of discrimination and where it occurs.
For me, being a man, is knowing where you come from and drawing strength from that. Explorers, surveyors,  blacksmiths, ploughmakers, shoemakers, labourers, clerks, sailors, miners, bushmen, and strong sensitive woman linked me through the past 150 years across the water to the highlands of Scotland, to the rivers of Prussia, the theatres of England.  My Auntie spoke of having Maori blood  through the village of Colac Bay in Southland and my family tree shows I am related to Buffalo Bill Cody and Charles Laughton, the Shakespearian actor. Perhaps, the most famous connection is to King James V, from whom the McKerrow historian says we have descended, albeit from the wrong side of the blanket.
Thinking of my heritage make me feel strong in the many difficult situations I have had to face. These have included Taleban soldiers threatening me with rifles, thieves in Colon Panama trying to knife me for my money and the cold barrel of an AK 47 pushed against my temple at night in Vietnam. I find my background gives me the cool-headedness to look them in the eye and ‘be a man.’  I find antagonists back down when you stand up to them. I suppose I have never been afraid of men particularly when comparing them to my tough Father. He was a strict disciplinarian and used to bring out a WWII German belt and beat us very hard if we misbehaved. But he was also an excellent handyman and I recall many happy days helping him do repairs around the house,  grow vegetables, cut hedges, lawns and resole shoes. He had two books on how to repair motor cars but being a labourer with five children, a car was beyond our family finances. 
 I go to my diaries from my early 20s and this is what I rediscover.
“For nearly two years I had been a part of all male mountaineering expeditions to Peru, Antarctica, and between times, on all male trips to Mount Cook and Fiordland.
“After nine months in Antarctica I looked in the mirror, and I realised a man without a women around him, is a man without vanity. Winsome, how I loved her. I wrote hundreds of letters to her during that dark, long winter’s night. She was at the airport with her new boyfriend to greet me when I returned from Antarctica.
Mountains and women – they were, and are, a huge part of my life. Brasch, our great New Zealand poet said “Man must lie with mountains like a lover, earning their intimacy in a calm sigh” . In “Leaves of Grass” Walt Whitman’s says “ A woman contains everything, nothing lack, body, soul.”
The a close relationship I had with my Mum, with two older sisters and my Nana (and the distant one I had with my Dad) convinces me that women were the one who encouraged me, gave me my reference points in life.
Why was I spending so much time with men ? Was I having to prove myself? Well I had proved I was physically capable of climbing some of the highest mountains in the world, running marathons, and surviving a year in Antarctica with only three other people.
Yet I felt at a cross road. There was something compelling about leading a life of an itinerant mountaineer, explorer or traveller. I cast back my mind Peru to 1968 and the poverty that moved me so much . My first adult poem was prompted by the injustices I saw throughout Peru in 1968. I flirted with Marxism, read Nietzsche, Che Guevara.  Thoughts from Bolivian diary by Che  Guevara swirled in my head. In New Zealand Norm Kirk was emerging as a national leader, an engine driver who was about to railroad our country away from the clutches of racist conservatism. Being a man was being aware of the wider world around me.
These were heady times.  The music -  Dylan, Joan Baez, Leonard Chen The Beatles, Joplin, Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly. The Vietnam war was becoming ugly - why the hell did New Zealand have troops there? Protests were strong.
During these weeks of running and frequent bouts of drinking at the Captain Cook pub, I came across an advert in  December 1971 in  the Otago Daily Times  wanting personnel to work in South Vietnam for a “ New Zealand Red Cross Refugee Welfare Team”. They wanted nurses, an agriculturalist, water-sanitation special, rehabilitation guidance officer, and a mechanic. Shit, this was for me. I could travel and do something structured for the people like those I saw in Peru.
Chris Knott and I had just got back from our miserable trip to Fiordland and we were together licking our wounds. We had miserably failed to climb Mt Tutoko and after a week of torrential rain we almost died of exposure and later were swept away when a swollen river picked up our tent as we slept.
The doorbell rang, and there at the front door was the telegram man with a message for each of us, inviting us to go to Wellington, for interviews for the New Zealand Red Cross Refugee team to South Vietnam.
A few weeks later I was elated on receiving news I had been selected to go to South Vietnam.
Chris missed out. He was to go back to England and spend the next three years working for the British Antarctic survey. I was the lucky one to have broken out of the mould being set for me to continue the lonely life of an adventurer
Defending my Mum on a number of occasions made me realise at a young age that discrimination is to be found everywhere, and that committed and motivated people were needed to stand up against it. That led me to the Red Cross, at the age of 22.
I wanted to be the protector, rescuer and change agent for all these people brutalised by uncaring soldiers in war, and to change the minds of the uncaring bureaucrats who were designated to care and help them.
Forty five later I am still  working for Red Cross in Bangladesh and feel I have the drive, committment and energy to go on another ten or more.

Thursday 10 November 2016

Obituary Kevin Pain. 1928 - 2015


Kevin Pain dedicated a lot of his life to working in the mountains using his carpentry, mountaineering, rescue and skiing skills for the benefit of others.
Kevin Pain found solace and peace in the mountains and had the all-round skills, attitude and survival mentality to have a crack at anything, and not be intimidated by others or hostile environments.
Kevin was born in Westport on 15 January 1928. He left school when he was about twelve and worked in a Butcher Shop. Kevin spoke little of his upbringing but it was a hard one and he knew the inside of orphanages.
At the age of 15, he moved to Christchurch in 1943 and started a 5 year apprenticeship with the Railways on the 15/7/43 as a carpenter   He completed this apprenticeship on the 23/7/48 at the age of 20.
He started on 10 and a 1/4 pence per hour and in his 5th year,  he was earning one shilling and 5 1/4 pence per hour. He stayed in Christchurch after his apprenticeship for a couple years working on new subdivision in the city.
When he first arrived in Christchurch at 15 years he boarded with the Fifields who became lifelong friends.  Jack Fifield also did an apprenticeship at the railways.  On most Friday nights the two of them would board the 6pm train to Arthurs Pass to go deer stalking.


 A montage of shots of Kevin Pain provided by his Antarctica sledging companion Pater Otway

The only stop the train made was at Arthurs Pass but these two always wanted to get off a bit earlier so they would slip the train driver a couple of bottles of beer and the train driver would slow the train down at the given point where they would jump off the train (while it was moving very slowly) signal the driver with a torch all was OK and the train would continue.
While in Christchurch Kevin played rugby for Albion and he often talked about those days – he could name every pub down Moorhouse Ave!
In early 1950 Kev moved to Franz Josef working on a number of projects including the Church.  He also worked in Queenstown, Wanaka and Milford.  Climbing was a passion and sometime in the mid 50s, he took up a job for the Ministry of Works at Mt Cook. While at Mt Cook he became heavily involved in Mountain Rescue, Guiding, Fire Brigade and of course climbing.  A friend told me he “climbed almost every peak including Mt Cook we think 3 times.” Because Kevin never wrote articles, few of his climbs are recorded although one of his ascents of Aoraki Mount Cook is recorded in Jim Wilson’s book Aorangi, in a party with Harry Ayres, and Gil Seymour on 7 February 1959.
In 1962 he did quite an amazing dog sledging trip in the Axel Heiberg Glacier area of Antarctica with a party led by Wally Herbert, Vic McGregor, and Peter Otway. Kevin Pain, was described by Wally Herbert in his book as "an experienced Mt. Cook guide" .
They surveyed a large area of the Queen Maud range and followed Shackleton (1908) and Scott's (1911) route up the Beardmore Glacier. Denied a request to proceed to the South Pole, his party ascended Mount Nansen and descended a route taken by Amundsen in 1911, thus being the first to retrace these explorers' traverses.

A mountain in Antarctica was named after Kevin. Pain Mesa ( 73°8′S 163°0′E Coordinates: 73°8′S 163°0′E) is a large mesa just north of Tobin Mesa in the Mesa Range, Victoria Land. Named by the northern party of New Zealand Geological Survey Antarctic Expedition (NZGSAE), 1962–63, for Kevin Pain, deputy leader of this party.
In 1969 when I was at Scott Base, the NZ Government announced that Kevin Pain had been awarded the Polar medal for his services to Antarctica.
An important part of Kevin’s life involved Lake Ohau and particularly the skifield 
He was a founding member of the Ohau Ski Club and worked away on the tow, the building and ski patrol. Kevin started the Yeti fever at Ohau
There is a type of fenced off area near the access road used for experimental grasses.
Kevin used to tell the kids it was a Yeti pen where they captured and kept Yetis
That story still lives on  - and the Yeti pen is still talked about. And the kids still look out for the Yeti that may have escaped

Kevin Pain repairing Palaeau Hut roof after it was blown off in August 1972. This to me epitomises Kevin, in the mountains, fixing something and in damn difficult conditioms. Photo: Bob McKerrow

When I lived at Mount Cook from 1971 to 1973, I got to know Kevin quite well, through our love of mountains and common experiences in Antarctica. I spent a week in Plateau hut with Kevin and a few others putting the roof back on after a storm tore it off. It was freezing and someone said the temps dropped to minus 20oC one night. When skiing out from the Grand Plateau down the Freshfield glacier I had a bad virus, and felt very weak. At the bottom of Haast ridge I took a rest, and dozed off. Kevin came back and shook me awake and had it not been for Kevin, it may have been my last sleep.
Colin Monteath  has another story around that time, and said, “ I remember working with KP in the dark on Herm roof …when a huge section of roofing iron blew off in a storm… It was dangerous as iron was still flying about. KP yelled at me for he was not impressed that my nails were being driven into the new iron in a straight line!!…will never forget that
In 1988, Kevin retired in Tekapo where he built a house.

Graeme Murray, a friend of Kevin's has a lot of information on Kevin's life.
Just before last Christmas we took Kevin down to Moreh Home in Fairlie and introduced him to that wonderful lady in there called Allison. 
Can you fancy Kevin, the life-time loner moving in to an Old Person’s Home. What a test of character that must have been.
But they welcomed him with love and compassion not to mention the good meals being served up.
So in the end he never hesitated.
So he moved in for Christmas 2014. But underneath he knew he was in big trouble. His Engine Room was running down  – although incredibly his friends  never heard him complain once.
His health had steadily deteriorated from January on and so after a mighty battle he finally succumbed and quietly passed away just five days ago in the loving arms of his family.

Bob McKerrow

700 MILLION PEOPLE LIVE IN MOUNTAIN REGIONS.


O

Looking from the Tasman Sea across Lake McKerrow to Mount Tutoko. Photo: Colin Monteath.

Mountain environments are essential to the survival of the global ecosystem.





They are the water reservoirs of the world – providing freshwater to at least half of the world’s
people. However, mountains are also high-risk environments; avalanches, landslides, volcanic
eruptions, earthquakes and glacial lake outburst floods threaten life in mountain regions and
surrounding areas. Mountains play an important role in influencing global and regional climates
and weather conditions. Mountains are also very fragile and are, now more than ever,
experiencing environmental degradation from soil erosion, landslides, loss of habitats and
species, and genetic diversity. In addition, they are particularly vulnerable to pressing changes
such as global warming.  Global cooperation in mountainous areas has proved to be the right
approach to protect mountains as storehouses of biological diversity and endangered species.
The New Zealand Alpine Club is celebrating 125 years since its inception this year and one of
its key activities, is hosting the Sustainable Summits conference at Aoraki Mount Cook from
August 7 – 11, 2016.
This will be the 3rd global Sustainable Summits conference to be held.
The conference will focus on practical solutions in terms of adapting to a changing mountain
environment, responding to changing visitor patterns and behaviour and preserving mountains
for the enjoyment of future generations in relation to core conference themes

Environmental Impacts
Human waste, water contamination, noise from helicopters and other machines, tracks and
erosion, huts, bridges and tracks – visual impacts.
Natural Hazards
Large rockfall (e.g. South Face of Aoraki / Mount Cook 2014),
ice recession and unstable
geology, avalanches, adverse weather conditions, floods,
earthquakes, volcanic eruptions
 Social Impacts / Cultural Values
Pressures on popular mountain routes – increasing numbers,
out-of-season use of tracks,
hut and track development; commercialism in the mountains;
influences of social media; cultural
awareness and visitor implications, Tōpuni areas (sacred),
water protection.
Although there are three core conference themes, there will be
opportunities for participants to
raise and discuss any topics related to mountain sustainability.
“ We have a great range of practical individuals attending from 
around the world. Presenters
Peter Rupitsch from Austria; Roger Robinson from Alaska; and 
another twenty presenters and
panellists from around the world,” said Dave Bamford, one of the organisers.include high profile
 mountain advocates such as Lou Sanson, DG DOCNZ; Guy Cotter, CEO Adventure
Consultants; Sir Tipene O’Regan; Dawa Steven Sherpa from Nepal; 
Confirmed participants now exceed 60 attendees with room for a total of 120 at the Hermitage
Conference facilities, Aoraki Mount Cook National Park.  Awards are also available for two young
New Zealand professionals to be sponsored at the conference.
In addition to our primary supporters: The NZ Alpine Club, Department of Conservation, the NZ
Federation of Mountain Clubs, the American Alpine Club, the American National Park Service
and the Petzl Foundation, we are pleased to welcome associate sponsors Adventure Consultants
and TRC Tourism.
Since its inception in 1891, the New Zealand Alpine Club have been strong advocates for the
sustainable use of mountain lands, and for protection where there are high conservation values,
such as supporting various national parks and reserve initiatives.
Arthur P.Harper combined with George Mannering and Malcolm Ross in 1891 to form the New
Zealand Alpine Club. Harper was president of the New Zealand from 1914 to 1932, and was
instrumental in the formation of the Federated Mountain Clubs of New Zealand in 1930, and
served as its president (1933–34) and patron (1952–54). He encouraged the establishment of
reserves and national parks and became a member of the Honorary Geographic Board of New
Zealand in 1934, and of the Tongariro National Park Board in 1938. In the 1940s he gave radio
talks on the mountains, and he was president of the Forest and Bird Protection Society of New
Zealand from 1948. Two years later he was awarded the Loder Cup for encouraging the
protection of New Zealand’s flora, and in 1952 he was made a CBE for his services to
conservation and mountaineering. NZAC Presidents after Harper, carried on the tradition of
environmental advocates.
The advocacy role started by the founding fathers of the NZ Alpine Club should not only be
carried on, but stepped up, particularly in terms of mountain laws and protection.  According to
a recent FAO report, “mountains have only recently begun to attract the attention of political
decision-makers and economic planners. Mountain law is, thus, still in its infancy: only a few
mountain-specific legal instruments, national and international, are currently in place. Still, a few
countries — France, Georgia, Italy, Switzerland and Ukraine are examples — have enacted
legal instruments focusing specifically on mountain areas, and other countries are in the process
of developing similar legislation.
New Zealand is a world leader in preserving mountain lands and the Conference organisers,
Dave Bamford and John Cocks, believe this is an opportunity to share what we are doing in the
mountain lands of New Zealand, while learning from what other nations are doing.
In February 1887, newspapers reported Ngāti Tūwharetoa’s proposal to gift the mountain tops of
Tongariro, Ngāuruhoe and Ruapehu to the Crown so a national park could be established.
National parks were a relatively new concept – Yellowstone National Park in the United States
had been created in 1872
Grace, the Member of Parliament for Tauranga, reportedly advised Horonuku that the only way to
preserve the mountains ‘ as places out of which no person shall make money’ was to ‘make them
a tapu place of the Crown, a sacred place under the mana of the Queen’.
Capturing and sharing lessons learned is an essential element of the Sustainable Summits
conference
In many parts of the world, mountain communities deserve special attention because they are
among the poorest and most affected by hunger in the world. Some 245 million mountain people
live in rural areas in developing and transition countries and are threatened by food insecurity,
recent FAO research shows.
The characteristics of high-altitude environments – and of the communities that call them home –
mean that development in highland areas requires a different approach — mountain-specific
strategies, based on mountain-specific research and knowledge.
In the past, however, governments have tended to concentrate development planning and service
provision in lowland areas, traditionally centres for national economic production, leaving poverty
and development issues in mountain regions unaddressed.
After the adoption of chapter 13 of Agenda 21, “Managing fragile ecosystems: sustainable
mountain development”, at 1992’s UN Earth Summit, awareness of the importance of mountain
ecosystems and communities increased.
This trend has been reinforced by the designation of 2002 as International Year of Mountains, and
by FAO’s ongoing collaboration with partner organizations to shape an International Mountain
Partnership.
Consequently, the need to not only protect highland environments but also ensure the economic
and social well-being of mountain communities is widely recognized.
However, much remains to be done in terms of translating that growing awareness of highland
development needs into mountain-specific laws and policies, FAO has noted.
FAO’s experience in the field shows that when mountain communities have a sense of at least
partial ownership or control over local natural resources they are more inclined to help protect them.
For example, in Nepal about 50 years ago, local communities had little or no incentive to protect
state-owned mountain forests. A policy shift in the last two decades devolved management and
user rights to local communities, which are currently making profitable investments in forests and
benefiting from wood and non-wood forest products. Consequently, communities became
increasingly interested in – and committed to – sustainably managing their forests.

Another important lesson to be learned from NZ is the formation of the Native Bird Protection
Society (later to become the Royal Forest and Bird Society of New Zealand) in 1923 which has
consistently advocated conservation issues, especially in relation to forested land.
Equally important was the Federated Mountain Clubs (FMC) which was formed in 1931 to
advocate for back country recreation and for the public ownership, protection, management and
control of our natural wild lands in perpetuity and subject to that, use for public recreation and
enjoyment. FMC has played a significant part in the creation and development of our National
Parks and Forest/Conservation Park network, as well as the formation of governing legislation
and policy applied to these public lands. It has also been instrumental in the creation of the
network of walkways throughout New Zealand. FMC has interests in protecting public access to
and recreational use of back country and major recreational areas.
FMC represents approximately 12,500 individual members belonging to nearly 100 recreational
clubs throughout New Zealand, as well as a number of individual supporters.
The New Zealand Alpine Club is pleased to have the FMC as a primary supporter and also the
Government’s Department of Conservation.
On 1 April 1987 the Department of Conservation was launched. Staff were drawn from the land
management giants, the New Zealand Forest Service and Department of Lands and Survey, and
the much smaller Wildlife Service and the Archaeology Section of the New Zealand Historic
Places Trust*, both of the Department of Internal Affairs, as well as other government agencies.
The first Director-General, Ken Piddington, was explicit that the new Department would shake off
the baggage of its parent agencies.
Environment, generally, was ripe for restructuring in New Zealand, in the prevailing 1980s climate
of free market reform. The move towards a single “conservation” agency started in November
1984, and gained force after a national conference in 1985.
At the time the NZFS was both protecting and logging native forests, and Lands & Survey
was caught between protecting land and burning it for development, as well as managing national
parks and reserves. Forest and Bird, the Native Forest Action Council, Friends of the Earth,
Maruia Society and other NGOs were campaigning to protect lowland podocarp forests around
the country.
To the Executive of the day, the public service was burdened with mixed objectives, and there
was no coherent approach to biodiversity conservation. It made sense to gather the “green dots”
around the country into one agency.
Thus, the Conservation Act 1987 requires DOC to protect natural and historic heritage, and
provide recreational opportunities on land entrusted to its care. Nature was to be protected for its
own sake and the benefits to New Zealanders protected for future generations to enjoy.
Bird scientists were brought under the same umbrella as park and reserve managers, and nature
conservation benefited almost immediately. Initially, however, most Wildlife Service staff at district
level were concentrated in the Taupo and Rotorua areas, because of the trout fishery rather than
ative snpecies.
Not least, the Department was launched with an expectation of an entirely new relationship with
Māori; Section 4 of the Conservation Act requires the Department to “give effect” to the principles
of the Treaty of Waitangi. Ken Piddington was (and still is) fluent in te reo.

Photos supplied by Colin Monteath Hedgehog house.  0

700 MILLION PEOPLE LIVE IN MOUNTAIN REGIONS.


O

Looking from the Tasman Sea across Lake McKerrow to Mount Tutoko. Photo: Colin Monteath.

Mountain environments are essential to the survival of the global ecosystem.


They are the water reservoirs of the world – providing freshwater to at least half of the world’s
people. However, mountains are also high-risk environments; avalanches, landslides, volcanic
eruptions, earthquakes and glacial lake outburst floods threaten life in mountain regions and
surrounding areas. Mountains play an important role in influencing global and regional climates
and weather conditions. Mountains are also very fragile and are, now more than ever,
experiencing environmental degradation from soil erosion, landslides, loss of habitats and
species, and genetic diversity. In addition, they are particularly vulnerable to pressing changes
such as global warming.  Global cooperation in mountainous areas has proved to be the right
approach to protect mountains as storehouses of biological diversity and endangered species.
The New Zealand Alpine Club is celebrating 125 years since its inception this year and one of
its key activities, is hosting the Sustainable Summits conference at Aoraki Mount Cook from
August 7 – 11, 2016.
This will be the 3rd global Sustainable Summits conference to be held.
The conference will focus on practical solutions in terms of adapting to a changing mountain
environment, responding to changing visitor patterns and behaviour and preserving mountains
for the enjoyment of future generations in relation to core conference themes

Environmental Impacts
Human waste, water contamination, noise from helicopters and other machines, tracks and
erosion, huts, bridges and tracks – visual impacts.
Natural Hazards
Large rockfall (e.g. South Face of Aoraki / Mount Cook 2014),
ice recession and unstable
geology, avalanches, adverse weather conditions, floods,
earthquakes, volcanic eruptions
 Social Impacts / Cultural Values
Pressures on popular mountain routes – increasing numbers,
out-of-season use of tracks,
hut and track development; commercialism in the mountains;
influences of social media; cultural
awareness and visitor implications, Tōpuni areas (sacred),
water protection.
Although there are three core conference themes, there will be
opportunities for participants to
raise and discuss any topics related to mountain sustainability.
“ We have a great range of practical individuals attending from around the world. Presenters
Peter Rupitsch from Austria; Roger Robinson from Alaska; and another twenty presenters and
panellists from around the world,” said Dave Bamford, one of the organisers.include high profile
 mountain advocates such as Lou Sanson, DG DOCNZ; Guy Cotter, CEO Adventure
Consultants; Sir Tipene O’Regan; Dawa Steven Sherpa from Nepal; 
Confirmed participants now exceed 60 attendees with room for a total of 120 at the Hermitage
Conference facilities, Aoraki Mount Cook National Park.  Awards are also available for two young
New Zealand professionals to be sponsored at the conference.
In addition to our primary supporters: The NZ Alpine Club, Department of Conservation, the NZ
Federation of Mountain Clubs, the American Alpine Club, the American National Park Service
and the Petzl Foundation, we are pleased to welcome associate sponsors Adventure Consultants
and TRC Tourism.
Since its inception in 1891, the New Zealand Alpine Club have been strong advocates for the
sustainable use of mountain lands, and for protection where there are high conservation values,
such as supporting various national parks and reserve initiatives.
Arthur P.Harper combined with George Mannering and Malcolm Ross in 1891 to form the New
Zealand Alpine Club. Harper was president of the New Zealand from 1914 to 1932, and was
instrumental in the formation of the Federated Mountain Clubs of New Zealand in 1930, and
served as its president (1933–34) and patron (1952–54). He encouraged the establishment of
reserves and national parks and became a member of the Honorary Geographic Board of New
Zealand in 1934, and of the Tongariro National Park Board in 1938. In the 1940s he gave radio
talks on the mountains, and he was president of the Forest and Bird Protection Society of New
Zealand from 1948. Two years later he was awarded the Loder Cup for encouraging the
protection of New Zealand’s flora, and in 1952 he was made a CBE for his services to
conservation and mountaineering. NZAC Presidents after Harper, carried on the tradition of
environmental advocates.
The advocacy role started by the founding fathers of the NZ Alpine Club should not only be
carried on, but stepped up, particularly in terms of mountain laws and protection.  According to
a recent FAO report, “mountains have only recently begun to attract the attention of political
decision-makers and economic planners. Mountain law is, thus, still in its infancy: only a few
mountain-specific legal instruments, national and international, are currently in place. Still, a few
countries — France, Georgia, Italy, Switzerland and Ukraine are examples — have enacted
legal instruments focusing specifically on mountain areas, and other countries are in the process
of developing similar legislation.
New Zealand is a world leader in preserving mountain lands and the Conference organisers,
Dave Bamford and John Cocks, believe this is an opportunity to share what we are doing in the
mountain lands of New Zealand, while learning from what other nations are doing.
In February 1887, newspapers reported Ngāti Tūwharetoa’s proposal to gift the mountain tops of
Tongariro, Ngāuruhoe and Ruapehu to the Crown so a national park could be established.
National parks were a relatively new concept – Yellowstone National Park in the United States
had been created in 1872
Grace, the Member of Parliament for Tauranga, reportedly advised Horonuku that the only way to
preserve the mountains ‘ as places out of which no person shall make money’ was to ‘make them
a tapu place of the Crown, a sacred place under the mana of the Queen’.
Capturing and sharing lessons learned is an essential element of the Sustainable Summits
conference
In many parts of the world, mountain communities deserve special attention because they are
among the poorest and most affected by hunger in the world. Some 245 million mountain people
live in rural areas in developing and transition countries and are threatened by food insecurity,
recent FAO research shows.
The characteristics of high-altitude environments – and of the communities that call them home –
mean that development in highland areas requires a different approach — mountain-specific
strategies, based on mountain-specific research and knowledge.
In the past, however, governments have tended to concentrate development planning and service
provision in lowland areas, traditionally centres for national economic production, leaving poverty
and development issues in mountain regions unaddressed.
After the adoption of chapter 13 of Agenda 21, “Managing fragile ecosystems: sustainable
mountain development”, at 1992’s UN Earth Summit, awareness of the importance of mountain
ecosystems and communities increased.
This trend has been reinforced by the designation of 2002 as International Year of Mountains, and
by FAO’s ongoing collaboration with partner organizations to shape an International Mountain
Partnership.
Consequently, the need to not only protect highland environments but also ensure the economic
and social well-being of mountain communities is widely recognized.
However, much remains to be done in terms of translating that growing awareness of highland
development needs into mountain-specific laws and policies, FAO has noted.
FAO’s experience in the field shows that when mountain communities have a sense of at least
partial ownership or control over local natural resources they are more inclined to help protect them.
For example, in Nepal about 50 years ago, local communities had little or no incentive to protect
state-owned mountain forests. A policy shift in the last two decades devolved management and
user rights to local communities, which are currently making profitable investments in forests and
benefiting from wood and non-wood forest products. Consequently, communities became
increasingly interested in – and committed to – sustainably managing their forests.

Another important lesson to be learned from NZ is the formation of the Native Bird Protection
Society (later to become the Royal Forest and Bird Society of New Zealand) in 1923 which has
consistently advocated conservation issues, especially in relation to forested land.
Equally important was the Federated Mountain Clubs (FMC) which was formed in 1931 to
advocate for back country recreation and for the public ownership, protection, management and
control of our natural wild lands in perpetuity and subject to that, use for public recreation and
enjoyment. FMC has played a significant part in the creation and development of our National
Parks and Forest/Conservation Park network, as well as the formation of governing legislation
and policy applied to these public lands. It has also been instrumental in the creation of the
network of walkways throughout New Zealand. FMC has interests in protecting public access to
and recreational use of back country and major recreational areas.
FMC represents approximately 12,500 individual members belonging to nearly 100 recreational
clubs throughout New Zealand, as well as a number of individual supporters.
The New Zealand Alpine Club is pleased to have the FMC as a primary supporter and also the
Government’s Department of Conservation.
On 1 April 1987 the Department of Conservation was launched. Staff were drawn from the land
management giants, the New Zealand Forest Service and Department of Lands and Survey, and
the much smaller Wildlife Service and the Archaeology Section of the New Zealand Historic
Places Trust*, both of the Department of Internal Affairs, as well as other government agencies.
The first Director-General, Ken Piddington, was explicit that the new Department would shake off
the baggage of its parent agencies.
Environment, generally, was ripe for restructuring in New Zealand, in the prevailing 1980s climate
of free market reform. The move towards a single “conservation” agency started in November
1984, and gained force after a national conference in 1985.
At the time the NZFS was both protecting and logging native forests, and Lands & Survey
was caught between protecting land and burning it for development, as well as managing national
parks and reserves. Forest and Bird, the Native Forest Action Council, Friends of the Earth,
Maruia Society and other NGOs were campaigning to protect lowland podocarp forests around
the country.
To the Executive of the day, the public service was burdened with mixed objectives, and there
was no coherent approach to biodiversity conservation. It made sense to gather the “green dots”
around the country into one agency.
Thus, the Conservation Act 1987 requires DOC to protect natural and historic heritage, and
provide recreational opportunities on land entrusted to its care. Nature was to be protected for its
own sake and the benefits to New Zealanders protected for future generations to enjoy.
Bird scientists were brought under the same umbrella as park and reserve managers, and nature
conservation benefited almost immediately. Initially, however, most Wildlife Service staff at district
level were concentrated in the Taupo and Rotorua areas, because of the trout fishery rather than
ative snpecies.
Not least, the Department was launched with an expectation of an entirely new relationship with
Māori; Section 4 of the Conservation Act requires the Department to “give effect” to the principles
of the Treaty of Waitangi. Ken Piddington was (and still is) fluent in te reo.



Photos supplied by Colin Monteath Hedgehog house.  0