18-E-0703
15 November 2018
Request to DOC - [email address]
Request to MOC - [FYI request #8730 email]
Dear Benjiman
Thank you for your Official Information Act request to the Department of
Conservation, dated 20 September 2018. On 9 October 2018 we extended your
request to 15 November 2018 due to the large quantity of information sought. Your
question regarding the tahr cull and our response, is listed below:
‘all correspondence between Minister Sage and the Department of Conservation in
regards to the Himalayan Tahr management since she became minister’
The documents listed below fall within the scope of your request and can be found at
the following link
https://www.doc.govt.nz/globalassets/documents/about-
doc/oia/2018/tahr-control-oia-responses.pdf
Item Date
Document description
Decision
1
3 November
Departmental Memo – Tahr
Released in part
2017
Control Report
(Names and Legal advice
redacted)
2
10 November
Departmental Memo –
Released in part
2017
Response to Follow up
(Names and Legal advice
Questions – Tahr Control
redacted)
Report
3
8 June 2018
Departmental Memo – Follow-
Released in part
up Meeting with NZDA, on 11
(Names and Legal advice
June 2018
redacted)
4
27 September
Departmental Memo – Tahr
Released in part
2018
Liaison Group Meeting –
(Names and Legal advice
Monday 1 October 2018
redacted)
Attachment 2 – Brief
Biographies – withheld
under 9(2)(g)(ii)
5
1 October 2018 Meeting Notes from Tahr
Released in part
Liaison Group – 1 October
(Names and Legal advice
2018: draft for TLG
redacted)
representatives to
review/confirm
6
13 July 2018
Departmental Memo – Wild
Released in part
Animal Control (including
(Names and Legal advice
tahr) and Pastoral Leases
redacted)
7
2 July 2018 –
Status Report items relating to
Released in part
24 September
the Tahr control
(Names and Legal advice
2018
redacted)
8
9 May 2018 -
Emails of Correspondence
Released in part
18 September
between Minister of
(Names, Legal advice and
2018
Conservation and Department
Administrative contents
of Conservation
redacted)
‘how population numbers were obtained, percentage of variation; potential revenue
loss for country’
In 2014, a report on historic tahr impact monitoring was completed by Landcare
Research. This revealed significant impacts of tahr on tussock and vegetation cover
and concluded that the current tahr monitoring to estimate population numbers was
not meeting the requirement of the 1993 Plan.
To address this, in the 2015/16 summer, DOC began a trial to integrate tahr
abundance and impact monitoring with the national-level monitoring (Tier 1)
undertaken as part of its Biodiversity Monitoring and Reporting System. Additional
measurements targeted at estimating tahr abundance (helicopter aerial counts) were
added to the programme for implementation at 111 sampling locations over a 5-year
period within the tahr management units and exclusion zones.
Analysis of the tahr abundance (helicopter aerial counts) data collected from 2015-
2017 at 38 sites was completed and a population estimate were obtained. The report
detailing the method, analysis, results and confidence intervals is provided below
Item
Document description
Decision
1
Report
Released
Tahr density estimates from aerial surveys (DOC-
in full
3233856).
Available on DOC website:
https://www.doc.govt.nz/globalassets/documents/parks-
and-recreation/hunting/west-coast/tahr-density-
estimates.pdf
The Department of Conservation has not completed any analysis of the potential
revenue loss for New Zealand.
I have decided to release the relevant parts of the documents listed above, subject to
information being withheld under one or more of the following sections of the Official
Information Act, as applicable:
• personal contact details of officials, under section 9(2)(a) – to protect the
privacy of natural persons, including deceased people,
• commercially sensitive information, under section 9(2)(b)(ii) – to protect the
commercial position of the person who supplied the information, or who is
the subject of the information,
• advice still under consideration, section 9(2)(f)(iv) – to maintain the current
constitutional conventions protecting the confidentiality of advice tendered by
Ministers and officials,
• advice subject to legal privilege, under section 9(2)(h) - to maintain legal
professional privilege,
In making my decision, I have considered the public interest considerations in
section 9(1) of the Official Information Act.
You are entitled to seek an investigation and review of my decision by writing to an
Ombudsman as provided by section 28(3) of the Official Information Act.
If you wish to discuss this response to your request, please contact Andy Roberts on
phone number 027 280 9186 or by email: [email address]
Yours sincerely
Andy Roberts
Director – Operations, Eastern South Island
