Save Happy Valley Coalition

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The Save Happy Valley Coalition (SHVC) is an environmental activist movement formed with the express purpose of preventing the Cypress mine, an open cast coal mine on the West Coast of New Zealand, from proceeding.

[edit] History

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 to 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.^[1] The Forest and Bird appealed the decision in the High Court, and that appeal was not granted in December 2005.

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 and blockaded Solid Energy's coal trains. Members are also indefinitely occupying an area adjacent to the proposed mine site.

The SHVC Save Happy Valley! Worth more than its weight in coal! leaflet describe the area as:

"Happy Valley, in the Upper Waimangaroa, near Westport, is a stunning, wild and untouched landscape - home to 30 great spotted kiwi/roa and the rare Powelliphanta patrickensis snail. Eleven other endangered birds and animals inhabit this enclave of diversity. Happy Valley is a colourful mosaic of magnificent red tussock wetlands, low forests of lush mountain beech and dense mats of intricate herbfield plants scattered over striking sandstone rocks and bluffs."

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.^{[citation needed]} 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.^[2]

The Save Happy Valley Coalition released a press statement stating they were 'appalled' at the decision. A spokesperson stated that it was 'New Zealand’s first state-sponsored species extinction'. And that Minister of Conservation Chris Carter had bowed to pressure from Solid Energy and had ignored consistent advice from the Department of Conservation.^[3]

The Save Happy Valley Coalition Inc has since taken Solid Energy to the High Court, and sought a Judicial Review of the Ministers' decision. The review was unsuccessful and costs of $5760 was awarded to Solid Energy.^[4]

In 2007 individuals involved with the Save Happy Valley Coalition were targeted in a series of contentious anti-terror raids.

In April 2008, the Sunday Star Times reported that Gavin Clark of the Auckland private investigation company, Thompson and Clark Investigations (TCIL), had offered a Christchurch man, Rob Gilchrist, $500 a week to inform on the Save Happy Valley Campaign, for the benefit of the state-owned coal company Solid Energy.^[5]

The campaign is a member of the environmental umbrella group Environment and Conservation Organisations of Aotearoa New Zealand.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Save Happy Valley Coalition
• Save Happy Valley Coalition occupation weblog