The Department of Conservation has eased back on its plan for controlling tahr in the Southern Alps, an invasive species which kills and destroys native plants in New Zealand's alpine environment.
The controversial plan originally would've seen thousands of tahr culled to reduce the population to manageable levels, which was protested by recreational and commercial hunters.
Trophy bull tahr are prized by hunters and under the revised control plan, they'll largely be left alone for the hunters.
Tahr within the Aoraki/Mt Cook and Westland/Tai Poutini National Parks are still in the firing line for DOC, with aims to reduce the population to zero.
Recreational, guided and commercial hunting would be allowed in the areas to achieve that goal.
Outside the feral range, there's also an aim to control all tahr. However the plan to control the population in other areas has been relaxed.
The protest movement is slowly growing with the former All Black now onboard.
Within most of the range, only large groups of female or juvenile tahr would be targeted, with prized males and smaller groups left alone for the hunters.
DOC will also work with Ngai Tahu to develop a research and monitoring programme, with advice from the Game Animal Council to be considered for remaining control efforts outside the national parks.
The review came after the Tahr Foundation sought a judicial review of DOC's programme in July, arguing there wasn't enough consultation.
The sinister threats have now been referred to the police.
"We are not targeting tahr in popular hunting spots and we’re exploring options to improve hunter access to public conservation land, such as extending the popular tahr ballot period," DOC operations director Dr Ben Reddiex said today.
"We're also publishing maps showing the locations of bull tahr we have observed across 425,000ha of public conservation land outside the national parks.
"We have already recorded more than a thousand observations of bull tahr which DOC has left for hunters."
He admitted despite the stakeholder submissions, "the finalised Operational Plan will not be able to completely satisfy all stakeholders, as submitters sought very different outcomes".
Feedback was received from stakeholders including conservationists, statutory bodies, recreationists and recreational and commercial tahr hunters, DOC says.
The Department of Conservation has culled 12,000 of the alpine pests to bring numbers under control.
'A KICK IN THE GUTS'
However, the NZ Tahr Foundation still isn't happy with the revised operational plan, telling 1 NEWS it's a "devastating kick in the guts" for the tahr hunting community.
"[The control plan] has delivered a final blow for DOC's relationship with hunters, completely severing any remaining trust we held in them," spokesperson Willie Duley says.
He accused DOC of playing "divide and conquer amongst stakeholders" and says the plan is largely the same as the original plan.
"It seems this consultation phase has again only been lip service at best," Mr Duley says.
"Not only will this final plan devastate thousands of livelihoods who depend on tahr, but after a week celebrating all the great work hunter-volunteers contribute to conservation projects around the country for ‘conservation week’, this decision really puts all of that great work the hunting community does for the benefit of native species in jeopardy."
DOC says bull tahr, prized by the hunters, will be left across 425,000 hectares of public conservation land, outside of the national parks.
SHARE ME