Both the Department of Conservation and their Contractors should be working with both. Both DoC and their contractors have a social responsibility not only to the Environment and the Community that they pick and choose, but to the wider community as a whole.
Under consultation and permissions, DoC has consulted with Hapu, Iwi and key stakeholders including land owners adjacent to the treatment areas. All of us are stakeholders, not just a few. DoC do not consult with the community they notify. DoC said a number of years ago that the use of 1080 (sodium fluoroacetate) is non negotiable. Now the Environmental protection Agency (EPA) has delegated DoC authority to decide applications for permission to use 1080. So DoC contractors apply to DoC for permission. Bit of a conflict of interests?
Social Licence. Both DoC and their contractors should be working with a social licence. A social licence means that they must have the majority of the support of the whole community. In the New Zealand’s 6th national report to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, under obstacles and scientific/technical needs, it states that there is a need to retain effective social licence for TOXINS. The Department of Conservation has tried twice to obtain a social licence and failed both times. In saying all this, we the people also have a social responsibility if we disagree with the use of 1080. It is up to us to write emails to Doc and their contractor EcoFX, that we DO NOT give consent. If nothing is said it is taken as consent.
What is right with dropping a world A1 toxin from the sky. You cannot poison the environment back to health.
