New Zealand: Greens, other NGOs furious at government plans to mine in PAs
Conservation groups and the Greens have expressed outrage at reports the government is planning to allow mining in 7000 hectares of high-value conservation land in the West Coast's Paparoa National Park, Great Barrier Island and the Coromandel Peninsula.
The government last year carried out a stocktake of minerals in the conservation estate, and intends taking parts of it out of the schedule in the Crown Minerals Act which protect it from mining.
Forest and Bird spokesman Kevin Hackwell says the organisation had "learnt "of three areas to be named in a delayed discussion document as areas the Government wanted to allow mining in.