Save Happy Valley Campaign

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The Save Happy Valley Campaign is an environmental activist movement formed with the express purpose of preventing an open cast coal mine on the West Coast of New Zealand.

Solid Energy, a New Zealand State owned enterprise, applied for a resource consent under the Resource Management Act. The consent, publicly notified on 23 January 2004, was granted but was appealed by Māori and environmental groups through the Environment Court. The appeal was lost in a decision handed down on May 24, 2005. Jon Oosterman, a spokesperson for the campaign, vowed publicly that a direct action campaign would proceed to halt the mine. (Forest and Bird appealed the decision in the High Court, but this was lost in December 2005).

Both non-violent direct action and public education have occurred with ever-increasing momentum. The campaign to date has organised public meetings to raise awareness, instigated a postcard, letter writing and lobbying campaign, occupied the head office grounds of the mining company, scaled a four story building, blockaded Solid Energy's coal trains and members are indefinitely occupying the valley.

The proposed mine site is located at "Happy Valley" which is an unofficial locally used name for an area to the east of Waimangaroa. It is 25 kilometres north east of Westport. Reasons for the opposition to the mine include acid mine drainage, loss of kiwi, Powelliphanta snail and tussock habitat and climate change due to the burning of the extracted coal.

At the nearby Mt Augustus, Solid Energy have pushed another 'absolutely protected' endemic snail species to the brink of extinction, and plan to mine its last remaining 4ha of habitat. Forest and Bird obtained a declaration in December 2005 that Solid Energy needed permission from the Ministers of Energy and Conservation to translocate the snails before mining. This permission was granted in April 2006 [1].

The Save Happy Valley Coalition Inc has since taken Solid Energy to the Environment Court, and is seeking a Judicial Review of the Ministers' decision. These cases are to be heard later in 2006.

The campaign is a member of the environmental umbrella group ECO.

[edit] References

ECOlink newsletter, June 2005, "Save Happy Valley Campaign Dissatisfied by Environmental Court Decision". ISSN 1174-0671 (PDF version)
Permits approved to move Mt Augustus snails. NZ Government press release, 12 April 2006