DoC's role - a land fit for tourists?

DoC used to be about conservation, keeping NZ's plants and animals safe for NZers. Pressure to become a tourist attractions provider is resulting in an awfully muddled mission message.



 
The Department of Conservation stands accused of a “blast now and think later” approach in a West Coast national park.
In July, a four-tonne sandstone block sheared off, coming to rest at the bottom of a set of stairs from a viewing platform on the Truman Track, part of the Paparoa National Park. The track, just north of Punakaiki, funnels more than 35,000 walkers a year to a spectacular coastline with cliffs, caverns, a blowhole, and waterfall.....

....Geotech’s managing director Ant Black has some sympathy for DoC, having to look after “bloody nutty”, mainly urban, foreign tourists, who often wear jandals and have no sense of self-preservation. These popular, easily accessible areas of the front country he calls “Muppetland”.....


 https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2019/10/18/859472/doc-under-fire-for-blast-now-think-later

 David Williams is Newsroom's South Island correspondent and investigative writer.