To: Penny Nelson, Director-General of Conservation
Date: 9 October 2023
Tēnā koe Penny, e rere ana ngā mihi o te rangi nei ki a koe e te Tumuaki o te tari ko Te
Papa Atawhai, I extend warm greetings to you and the office of Director General of Te Papa
Atawhai
Firstly, I would like to thank you for your attendance at the Conservation Boards Chairs’
Conference. The Chairs and I appreciated your attendance and willingness to have free and
frank discussions with attendees. Many attendees remarked on the positiveness and
productiveness of this conference in comparison to previous years and noted a feeling of
‘reinvigoration’.
This letter provides recommendations on progressing the ‘functioning of conservation
boards’ work that the Authority have undertaken in recent months.
Through the Authority’s work with Conservation Boards Chairs, we have identified that there
is room for improvement on the current operating of Conservation Boards. In order to
support the identified improvements, I recommend a two-pronged approach, which consists
of:
During the June Authority meeting, the Authority engaged with you in a strategic discussion
around ‘what does good conservation look like?’. During this discussion, the role of
Conservation Boards was acknowledged as playing an important role in achieving ‘good
conservation’. You tasked the Authority to engage with conservation boards to understand
how the Department can support them in their efforts to contribute to good conservation, at a
time where their role and purpose may seem unclear due to the current out-of-date state of
many Conservation Management Strategies and Plans (CMSs and CMPs, respectively).
Since this conversation, the Authority have engaged with Conservation Boards Chairs to
better understand the current functioning of their board and discuss ideas on what the future
role and purpose of Conservation Boards looks like. This engagement took place in two
stages, as detailed below.
The feedback gathered from the conference can be found in Attachment B. You also
heard some of this feedback first hand during your time at the conference.
Conservation Management Strategies
During your session at the conference, you addressed the state of management planning,
and acknowledged the overdue status of most Conservation Management Strategies
(CMSs). You encouraged Chairs to acknowledge that the current situation with CMSs will
not be fixed in the foreseeable future, and therefore encouraged them to continue to make a
positive contribution to conservation in other ways during their term on the board(s).
The Chairs appreciated your free and frank discussion and acknowledge your advice to shift
away focus from CMS’. However, Chairs and the Authority also acknowledge the value of
CMS’s for engaging communities, achieving meaningful collaboration with mana whenua
and a legislative requirement.
Recommendation:
D-G Working Group
You advised that regional integrated strategies would be invigorated by the Department, and
you suggested establishing a working group which would look at the relationship between
boards and department personnel, and regional integrated strategies; the group would
comprise of select Chairs, SLT members, and Regional Operations Directors. The Chairs
seemed appreciative of this suggestion; I believe this group would contribute to Chairs
feeling valued by the Department and provide them with a tangible avenue to provide real
value and input into the implementation of regional integrated strategies.
The Chairs have selected representatives to be appointed to this group. If you are able to
provide further information on this group (i.e., terms of reference, first meeting date) that
would be appreciated.
Recommendation:
Budgets
During your session at the conference, you communicated to Chairs that an increase in
conservation board funding is unlikely given the Department’s current fiscal position.
However, Chairs felt that an increase in their budgets would allow them to better continue
their mahi with their local communities and iwi. In the absence of up-to-date CMSs, the
Chairs felt that a strong role and purpose for Conservation Boards moving forward is
continuing this work within their rohe. Therefore, if the Department is able to bolster them
financially to better continue their work, this would be an effective contribution to their role.
Chairs acknowledged the ongoing conflict with the Regional Operations Directors holding the
board’s budgets and suggested that budgets for conservation boards be held with the
respective Deputy Director-General or come assigned from the Minster directly.
Recommendation:
Resourcing
A very strong theme in the feedback from Chairs was the inadequate resourcing dedicated
to Conservation Boards, mainly in the form of the Board Support Officer (BSO) position. This
is currently a 0.5FTE position. Chairs, and the BSO representatives present at the meeting,
noted the very high turnover in this role, as well as the inability to carry out the duties of the
role in a part-time capacity due to the high workload.
Further, the BSOs remarked on the competing priorities they face from the Department vs.
the Conservation Boards, their need to often service more than one board due to other BSO
vacancies, and that the work they carry out surpasses that of a secretariat or administrator
and includes engagement and relationship building with local communities and iwi.
There was widespread concern about this role from Chairs, BSOs, and Authority members
alike. Chairs were interested to hear if the department had analysed why the turnover of this
role was so high, and what action was being taken to address this.
Moving forward, Chairs felt strongly that having a full-time dedicated Board Support Officer
for each conservation board would be greatly beneficial to the functioning of their board and
would be an effective way to enable the boards to make a positive contribution to ‘good
conservation’. Further, servicing staff employment packages need to be reviewed to ensure
that those with skills and experience are remunerated fairly, and new appointments are
supported appropriately. This should help lead to higher retention rates, extended capability,
and better productivity.
Recommendation:
Potential improvements to be made by Conservation Boards
Further to the recommendations above, Chairs identified some potential improvements they
could proactively implement themselves within their Boards, without needing any input from
the Department. These included:
I would be happy to discuss the contents of this report with you further, and would appreciate
your feedback on the proposed recommendations.