The Otago conservancy is to be split in two under a restructuring proposal announced by the Department of Conservation yesterday that will cut 140 jobs nationwide.
The department proposes to replaces its 11 regional conservancies with six regions.
It is understood Central Otago and half the Coastal Otago area will be included in the newly created Eastern South Island region, and Wanaka, Wakatipu and the southern part of Coastal Otago will be in the new Southern South Island region.
The number of jobs to be lost in Otago and Southland is uncertain, but Doc figures showed proposed cuts of three full-time equivalent staff in Otago to 107.3 staff and a loss of two in Southland to 115.2 staff (excluding vacancies).
While the region's Doc offices would remain open and it was proposed that a regional management office would be sited in Dunedin, it is understood the roles of area managers and programme managers are at risk.
A Doc spokeswoman said new roles would be created and the proposal recommended positions be moved to where they were best placed within regions.
''Across regions, some offices lose roles, some gain positions and some are unchanged. The proposal affects a range of operational staff.''
Staff had been given until April 12 to make a submission on the proposed restructuring. That information would be considered before any final decisions on a structure were made, she said.
Doc director-general Al Morrison said in a statement the new ''streamlined'' structure would enable the department to work more ''effectively with external partners'' and help it meet its $8.7 million savings target.
The six regions would be managed across two functions: field work and ''growing conservation through partnerships'', he said.
''The resulting flatter organisational structure will see the loss of about 118 management and administrative positions.''
Twenty-two operational roles would be lost due to new ''support hubs'' being set up for activities such as asset management, inspections and work planning.
Public Service Association (PSA) national secretary Brenda Pilott said the latest restructure came hard on the heels of a review less than two years ago that resulted in the loss of about 100 jobs.
''Government budget cuts and funding pressures mean job uncertainty has become an unwelcome fact of life for Doc staff over the past few years and has led to a loss of capacity in some areas.''
The PSA, which represented more than 1400 Doc staff, believed it would affect frontline operations across almost every Doc office with the disestablishment of mainly regional programme manager positions.
''These are not solely desk-bound, paper-pushing jobs. These people are hands-on managers who spend time in the field organising and planning resources and running frontline activities and programmes such as species recovery or track building.''
Affected staff had some tough decisions to make, she said.
''It represents significant upheaval and change and a loss to the organisation of valuable expertise, experience and capability which is very difficult to replace.''
Forest and Bird advocacy manager Kevin Hackwell said more than 10% of Doc's 1700 to 1800 full-time equivalent positions had been lost in the past 12 months alone.
''Doc has had $54 million slashed from its budget since 2009. Operations have been scaled back, and there's been a round of job cuts every year for several years now.''
The cuts would mean fewer people checking traps, measuring freshwater quality, monitoring endangered native birds and picking up rubbish in national parks, he said.
