To: The Minister of Conservation………………………………..24 August, 2011
Hon. Kate Wilkinson. MP.
& Director General,
Department of Conservation.
Mr Al. Morrison
Second Open Letter
Having received an email acknowledgment only, but no detailed response from you,
Minister, and a brief response from the Director General to our earlier letter of 12
August (see below), we wish to reiterate further our very serious concern with the
relatively large number of scientific Technical Support Staff who are apparently to be
involved in this major staff review currently being conducted within the Department
of Conservation. We understand that there are to be many transfers from the Dunedin
and Invercargill offices, mostly to Christchurch (and probably from several other
centres). Involvement of the Invercargill office staff in this exercise was never
mentioned in any prior press release we have seen, so we were unaware at the time of
our earlier letter that they were to be involved in this exercise. We are very aware of
the highly important role that many of these Technical Support staff play in a wide
range of very important field studies in their own capacity, which is critical to the
effective role and responsibilities of the Department in managing indigenous
biodiversity, biosecurity, environmental impacts of various types, They are also
closely involved in a wide range of other issues, e.g., threats to the unique Waituna
wetlands, the wilding tree control joint exercise on Mid Dome Southland, highcountry tenure review, Fiordland Marine Guardians, all of which one of us (AFM) has
had a long and continuing and active involvement with. Many other examples could
also be cited. The transfer of Technical Support staff involved with these and
comparable exercises away from local and regional proximity of these vital issues for
the Department, must inevitably seriously weaken their currently important level of
involvement.
We are deeply concerned with the explanation given by Mr Morison in his
response of 13 August. Namely, that the “critical mass” issue for DOC staff which he
cited, must be about as relevant to the other scientists and technical staff in several
CRIs and the universities, where collaboration has been mutually very useful and
clearly synergistic up to this time. Surely these associations must be considered as a
vital part of such a “critical mass” and of great relevance to the Department in most of
the centres implicated in this exercise.
Our concern over the re-location/dislocation of Science and Science Support
staff in DOC is such that we plan to release these two open letters to the N.Z.
Association of Scientists and also to the N. Z. Plant Conservation Network and the
various Botanical Societies, for wider circulation in their newsletters and among their
membership, and any other appropriate distribution to the wider community. We, and
others that we know, attach great importance to, and concern with, this issue in the
context of the vital necessity and continuing integrity of science-based conservation in
New Zealand.
Yours sincerely,
David J. Galloway FRSNZ, FLS
Hon. Life President, International Association for Lichenology. [Ph. 03-473 1625]
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Alan F. Mark CBE, KNZM, FRSNZ
Emeritus Professor of Botany, University of Otago. [Ph. 03-479 7573]
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To: The Minister of Conservation…………………………………12 August, 2011
The Hon. Kate Wilkinson MP
&
The Director-General, Department of Conservation
Mr Al Morrison,
An Open Letter
It concerns us greatly that the Department of Conservation is about to axe many
important established science positions (both scientists and science support staff) in
its Auckland, Nelson and Dunedin offices, in a move to help “better direct resources
to its conservation work in the field”, as such changes were earlier justified. This was
the proud boast reported in the New Zealand Herald on 24 June when DOC
announced the culling of more than 100 jobs, including field scientists, or more than
5% of their 1800 staff at that time. Following hard on its own heels DOC now seems
willing to cut adrift an impressive tranche of hard-won and highly valuable scientific
skills throughout New Zealand. We understand that scientific staff will be expected to
apply for limited roles in Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch. We doubt that
consideration of the invaluable relationships built up between DOC scientists, other
local researchers and available resources in these centers has been adequately
considered. This restructuring and relocating would jeopardise many beneficial
relationships and some of the country’s centres of biodiversity and also many useful
botanical resources
Several DOC botanists are major contributors to the 2010 book Threatened
Plants of New Zealand, a work that one of us reviewed most favourably. Indeed, only
a few weeks ago this book was hailed here in Dunedin at the Tennant Lecture by Prof.
Peter Raven, President-Emeritus of the Missouri Botanic Garden and one of the
planet’s great plant conservationists, as a milestone publication of which New
Zealand should be justly proud. To have its main contributors and advocates
summarily dismissed over such a trivial issue as enforced relocation after many years
of sterling research into New Zealand Botany and the threatened status of many plant
groups, and recently as well, of our 1800 species of lichens, is a scandalous
abrogation of DOC’s role as gatekeeper for New Zealand’s surviving biota. Peter
Raven’s prophetic Tennant Lecture at Otago University, to a near-capacity audience
dealt with how many species will survive the 21st century. It seems to us that DOC’s
present round of cuts is likely to affect scientific staff in many parts of the country,
and presumably has been endorsed by you as the relevant Minister. We warn that this
move will only hasten the march to oblivion of our many threatened indigenous biota.
It is not only regional expertise that is being compromised in this planned change, it is
critical knowledge we hold in trust for the planet!
As senior botanists of some standing both nationally and internationally, we
deplore in the strongest possible terms, any decision to axe or dislocate some of the
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country’s most important plant scientists. It is both short-sighted and niggardly, and
we would ask that you please reconsider the likely retrograde consequences of this
exercise.
This is an open letter that we plan also to release to the media.
Yours sincerely
David J. Galloway FRSNZ, FLS
Hon. Life President, International Association for Lichenology.[Ph. 03-473 1625]
Alan F. Mark CBE, KNZM, FRSNZ
Emeritus Professor of Botany, University of Otago. [Ph. 03-479 7573]
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