Update re: UNESCO World Heritage bid for Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland’s maunga
Ōwairaka Mt Albert. Photo: Trevor Mander.
Honour the Maunga sent an Official Information Act (OIA) request to DoC regarding progress on the UNESCO World Heritage bid for the maunga. In late March 2022 we received various documents, along with an overview of progress to date.
Where the UNESCO World Heritage Bid for the maunga is at as of 23 March 2022
As quoted from a DOC letter to HTM 23 March 2022, in response to an OIA request:
“The Tūpuna Maunga Authority indicated interest in progressing a World Heritage nomination for the Tūpuna Maunga/volcanic cones site in 2019. The Department reached out to the Authority offering to discuss the UNESCO process for progressing a World Heritage nomination. Discussions planned for early 2020 were, however, postponed due to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As the lead agency for the World Heritage Convention, the Department has responsibility to submit any New Zealand World Heritage nomination for consideration through the UNESCO process. Local readiness and support are important considerations in any decision to progress or submit a local World Heritage nomination. UNESCO agencies expect to see clear evidence of engagement with, and support from, indigenous peoples and local communities when they review a nomination for inscription on the World Heritage List.
The development of a World Heritage nomination is a lengthy process. The first step involves a feasibility assessment of local readiness to progress a nomination and confirmation that the site is likely to meet UNESCO World Heritage criteria.
This early feasibility assessment can be facilitated through the development of a value proposition for the site that is agreed by iwi and stakeholders and meets UNESCO criteria. This information enables UNESCO advisory bodies to review and advise on a proposal early in the process before the development of a full nomination and informs a decision to proceed with a full nomination.”
Honour the Maunga’s observation
The Authority’s 2022/23 draft Operational Plan and budget provides for $125,000 expenditure on progressing the UNESCO World Heritage bid - a cost that will be borne by Auckland ratepayers. We believe this bid is almost certainly doomed to failure because the Authority’s behaviour towards local communities (as confirmed by the recent judicial decision) directly contravenes the World Heritage Convention’s strategic objectives, which are as follows:
• The involvement of local communities should be based on constructive dialogue and should enable a collaborative decision-making opportunity between all stakeholders
• Community-involvement should lead to a mutual understanding and collaboration among all stakeholders involved in the protection and development of World Heritage sites
• Through the communication with donors, local stakeholders and with investors the co-ordination of activities and strategies should be improved as well as the dialogue between (national and local) authorities with the civil society concerning the management and the future of the World Heritage property should be enabled or even improved
• An important aspect represents the awareness raising of the local communities and the wider public.
Judicial action aside, the bid’s likelihood of succeeding will be undermined for many reasons, including the following:
• Māori are expressing concern about the extent to which the Authority’s environmentally destructive processes are undermining, rather than supporting, core cultural beliefs and practices. See here, here and here for examples.
• Until 12 March 2022, Honour the Maunga maintained a peaceful daily tree-saving presence at Ōwairaka for more than 800 days. Although we are now standing down due to the judicial decision, we will immediately move back into round-the-clock defence should the trees be in imminent danger.
• The Māori-led Respect Mt Richmond community group has publicly stated its intention to occupy that maunga should the Authority move to fell its 443 exotic trees (75% of the entire tree cover).
• Other communities are considering action to protect the trees on their local maunga if and when the chainsaws come out • Many thousands have signed our online and hard-copy tree-saving petition • People from all walks of life – including Mana Whenua – have personally told us they support our tree-saving actions.
• In Auckland Council and Tūpuna Maunga Authority’s 2020/21 budget consultations: − Auckland Council received 154 budget submissions of which 120 did not support single-stage tree felling on the maunga and 5 did support it. − Tūpuna Maunga Authority receiving 176 budget submissions of which 139 did not support the tree felling and 4 did.
Should the World Heritage bid process advance, then unless there has been positive engagement with the Authority over the maunga tree situation, Honour the Maunga will be campaigning to ensure UNESCO understands the extent to which Authority - aided and abetted by Auckland Council - is trampling over local communities and Māori alike.