Millions of tourism dollars are not at risk if heli-hunting on public conservation land is banned, according to the New Zealand Deerstalkers' Association, which says the cash-strapped Department of Conservation is already missing out on millions in potential income.
The heli-hunting issue is multifaceted; questioning moral and ethical practices through to legislative interpretation, with emotive claims and counter-claims being made by the protagonists.
"Heli-hunting is an aerial armchair perversion of sport, literally a financial and conservation disaster that destroys the integrity of New Zealand's national parks and back-country," said Shaun Moloney, spokesman for Queenstown-based Southern Lakes branch of the New Zealand Deerstalkers' Association.
Last week Dunedin-based QC, Colin Withnall, put forward arguments on behalf of the 12 companies in the South Island Wild Animal Recovery Operators' Association, saying millions of dollars would be lost in southern tourism if heli-hunting was banned.
An independent report on heli-hunting's financial contribution is being collated for the operators' association.
In reply, the NZDA this week said it believed tourism-based hunting on private land, which hosted about 80% of those hunters, generated annual revenue of between $26 million and $28 million.
But when it came to allowing foreign hunters access to Doc land, the department was potentially missing out on fees of $5 million.
New Zealand has the only stable herd of Himalayan tahr (about 10,000) which can be hunted.
While heli-hunting may require a three-day stay, ground hunting expeditions can be up to 14 days.
Mr Moloney said hunters wanting a similar type of trophy animal to New Zealand's Himalayan tahr overseas would have to pay an equivalent fee of up to $NZ16,233.
"Heli-hunters pay only $400 dollars per tahr for an alpine trophy worth over $US12,500," he said.
Mr Moloney, also a member of the five-person NZDA heli-hunting subcommittee, said about 450 to 500 tahr trophies left New Zealand annually, with each one requiring a certificate of origin issued by Doc or Maf.
The certificate said the trophy originated in New Zealand, and without this paperwork the trophy could not be imported into the tourist hunter's home country, he said.
"New Zealand charges $40 for each of these certificates. Legislative change could simply alter the charge to $US12,500 per certificate, instead of only $40. That's potentially over $5 million dollars lost annually," Mr Moloney said.
Well managed guided and recreational ground hunting could provide a huge income boost to Doc, countering that millions of tourism dollars would therefore not be at risk if heli-hunting on public land was banned, he said.
"High-value big-spending hunters visiting New Zealand do not expect to heli-hunt. Visiting tourist hunters are uncomfortable with heli-hunting.
"Using a helicopter to hunt from and run down animals for sport is banned anywhere else the world," Mr Moloney said.
"Helping out the cash-strapped Department of Conservation and supporting New Zealand as a quality hunting destination can be achieved simply without heli-hunts," Mr Moloney said.
He said data on the temporary heli-hunts concessions "reveals a damning picture". Doc charged each heli-hunt client only $780 dollars per hunt during 2011.
"Less than $800 per hunter is hardly high value, but it gets worse," Mr Moloney said.
While Doc revenue from concession payments was about $200,000 from heli-hunting, Mr Moloney said a breakdown of the costs of administering heli-hunts revealed a net income to New Zealand, after costs, of less than $100,000.
"No cost can be calculated as to the loss of New Zealand's 100% Pure brand image from heli-hunting," he said.
Safari Club International, whose members make up the majority of high-value hunters visiting New Zealand, disqualified heli-hunted animals from trophy status, he said.
"Heli-hunts produce worthless trophies to our most valued hunting tourists," Mr Moloney said.
At the centre of legal discussion is what is considered by some to be a "loophole" in the Wild Animal Control Act of 1977, which pre-dates the Conservation Act of 1987, but not the National Parks Act 1980.
The Wild Animal Control Act takes precedence over both, but heli-hunting operators and Doc say it authorises heli-hunting.
The Wild Animal Control Act allows heli-hunters to operate under a "wild animal recovery operator's" permit.
The legislation was enacted in the early days of deer carcass recovery; which does not specifically address trophy hunting, but nevertheless authorises heli-hunting concessions.
Mr Moloney said the temporary two-year heli-hunting concessions were "written for helicopter owner benefit and no-one else" and warned that if 10-year concessions, at present under consideration, were granted by Minister of Conservation Kate Wilkinson, it would be "a back-country disaster" for New Zealand.
"There are quality ways to promote New Zealand's spectacular back-country and hunting opportunities rather than selling New Zealand's Southern Alps as an aerially themed thrill park to fly around, running down animals with a helicopter," he said.
Mr Moloney questioned the sustainability of heli-hunters, saying the 16 businesses involved had requested to take 900 trophy tahr and 1100 chamois annually.
"Heli-hunting is unsupportable in the long term. If heli-hunters are allowed their demands, within five years heli-hunting will collapse its own business base, decimate the trophy animal pool and produce substandard trophies with dissatisfied international hunters leaving New Zealand feeling short-changed," Mr Moloney said.
On three separate occasions during the past decade heli-hunters had applied for concessions to conduct their activity and been turned down by the Otago, Canterbury and West Coast Conservation Boards, but they carried on heli-hunting anyway, he said.
The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Jan Wright, was so concerned about the implications of 10-year heli-hunt concessions, she had initiated an investigation into the concession processes surrounding heli-hunts, he said.
Mr Moloney believed an open public consultation process attempting to install 10-year heli-hunting concessions on public land would be "overwhelmingly defeated"; which was what happened in Aoraki Mt Cook National Park when heli-hunting was publicly notified for consent and defeated by public opposition in 2010.
"Public land was never intended as income support for helicopter businesses relying on public tolerance of unethical, unwanted activity, for financial survival," Mr Moloney said.
It would appear the heli-hunting debate on using conservation land is headed in the same direction as last year's controversial mining proposal on accessing conservation land, which polarised public opinion and forced a Government U-turn.
Critical to the issue will be Doc's forthcoming decision on how it handles the question of whether to introduce 10-year concessions, and whether that proposal is publicly notified.
