OceanaGold | Waihi North Project | Recreation and tourism assessment 13 Conservation Management Strategy The Waikato Conservation Management Strategy 2014-24 (CMS)3 describes the recreation values of the Park. Some extensive quotes are used here as the CMS is the primary document for recreation management in the study area, and it also describes the desire to further develop public access near the proposed raises. In describing the links between heritage and recreation values, the CMS notes (p26): Within the Coromandel Forest Park, there are numerous significant sites associated with quartz reef mining in the 19th and 20th centuries. Also within the park, concentrated in the Kauaeranga and Tairua catchments are many sites, notably the driving dams, associated with the kauri logging industry, which continued until the 1930s….. Historical and cultural heritage helps us to understand how people have changed the environment over time. Few areas of New Zealand remain unmodified by the effects of human occupation. A single site or area usually has a range of interrelated values, including historical and cultural, biodiversity and recreational values. Visitors are interested in both natural and cultural heritage, and many historic sites attract large numbers of visitors. Historical and cultural heritage conservation is an essential part of integrated conservation management. The study area includes the south-eastern corner of the ‘Maratoto, Wentworth and Wharekirauponga’ area (or ‘Internal Place’), which is a subset of the ‘Hauraki-Coromandel Peninsula Place’ (Figure 4). The CMS introduces the Hauraki-Coromandel Peninsula Place at page 64: The Hauraki–Coromandel Peninsula Place comprises all public conservation land from the northern tip of Coromandel Peninsula to (but not including) the Karangahake Gorge. The Department administers 38% of the total land area on the Coromandel Peninsula, including the 72,000-ha Coromandel Forest Park. Management of the land has a direct influence on the environment and opportunities available to those who live and visit the Peninsula. The policy direction for this Place focuses on lands managed by the Department, and the protection of biodiversity values, outstanding natural landscapes and natural character, including integrated management with others of pressures originating off public conservation lands, particularly with respect to coastal development. This Place includes three discrete areas, each with specific management needs: Northern Coromandel-Thames Coast, Kauaeranga Valley and Broken Hills, Maratoto, Wentworth and Wharekirauponga. The northern raise site is within the ‘Maratoto, Wentworth and Wharekirauponga’ area (Figure 5), which is described (p70): Historic values centre on kauri logging, gold mining and early telegraph communication. Kauri logging and mining sites feature throughout the Wentworth, Maratoto and Wharekirauponga valleys. Examples include the actively managed Royal Standard Tramway at Wharekirauponga, and mining sites between Maratoto and Golden Cross. The Wires Track at Maratoto follows a historic telegraph route. The protection of significant historical 3 Department of Conservation. 2014. Conservancy Conservation Management Strategy Waikato 2014-2024. Department of Conservation Whanganui.
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