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A
duty to foster commercial recreation?
A senior DOC
official announced,
at a recent symposium at the University of Otago, that DOC has a duty
to "foster commercial
recreation".
Promotion of "commercial
recreation" amounts to a perversion of the statutory purposes
of the conservation
estate and of DOC. Supposedly, according to DOC's latest revelation,
there are no distinctions to be made between tourism and recreation, or
between leisure recreation and those who want to make a buck out of
it.
However this is what the Conservation Act 1987 has to say:
Section 6. Functions of Department
(e) To the extent that the use of
any natural or historic resource for recreation or tourism is not
inconsistent with its conservation, to foster
the use of natural and
historic resources for recreation,
and to allow their use for tourism
(my emphasis).
'Recreation': "activity done for enjoyment when one is not
working" (Dictionary).
'Tourism': "the commercial
organisation and operation of
vacations and visits to places of interest" (Dictionary).
The notion of 'commercial
recreation' is an oxymoron.
Note the comma after 'recreation'
in section 6(e). This reinforces 'recreation or tourism' as separate
entities, with differing duties to 'foster' (encourage or promote) and
'allow' (merely permissive).
Recreational enjoyment (s 2) is
for the public (dictionary: "of or concerning the people as a whole"),
not for others with narrow pecuniary interests. For the latter,
concessions are required – not so for recreational activities
without reward (s 17Q).
The lawfulness of DOC's new
policy needs to be
challenged.
Bruce Mason
Recreation Access New Zealand