Final meeting of the Kāpiti Island Nature Lodge Monitoring Committee
The final meeting of the Kāpiti Island Nature Lodge Monitoring Committee was held last week.
The Kāpiti Island Nature Lodge Monitoring Committee was established in 2003 after a resource consent was issued to operate an eco-tourism business on rural land on Kāpiti Island.
Since that time regular reports on consent conditions have been provided to the committee. These conditions included the number and supervision of visitors, predator and rodent protection and sewage treatments.
Mayor Ross Church thanked the members of the committee sincerely for their work over the years, which ensured the island was well looked after.
Group Manager Regulatory Services Kevin Currie says that the committee has performed an important function as the operation has become established, and the history of compliance with the resource consent has been good.
“A new monitoring ‘komiti’ (committee) will be set up by Kāpiti Island Nature Tours to monitor consent compliance going forward, with representatives invited from the Council, Department of Conservation and iwi,” Mr Currie says.
Members of the committee for 2013 – 2016 have been: Dr Hugh Barr (Chair); Councillor K Gurunathan; Rob Stone, Department of Conservation; Tony Ward, Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of NZ; Paul Hockey; Susie Mills, Pharazyn Charitable Trust; and Jennie Smeaton, Iwi Representative.
Photo: The Mayor and members of the Kāpiti Island Nature Lodge Monitoring Committee (left to right): Susie Mills, Councillor K Gurunathan, Dr Hugh Barr (Chair), Mayor Ross Church and Tony Ward.