Two years of intense legal wrangling and work delays have ended with Forest & Bird deciding not to appeal the last Environment Court decision, opening the way for coal mining by Bathurst Resources on the West Coast's Denniston plateau.
Forest and Bird conceded the courts would ultimately allow mining anyway, but it has claimed a win in having Bathurst commit to a ''permanent protection area'' on the plateau.
Bathurst has said it wants to begin full production mining of specialist hard coking coal in the first quarter of 2014, building up to 1 million tonnes of annual exports, then to 4 million tonnes from all operations within four to five years.
Bathurst managing director Hamish Bohannan said the agreement with Forest and Bird was a ''significant milestone'' for the Escarpment mine project and mining would start ''as soon as possible''.
Bathurst has been delayed by about two years, having fought legal challenges through several courts.
Forest and Bird Top of the South field officer Debs Martin said it had decided not to appeal the Environment Court decision allowing an open-cast coal mine, saying ''it is clear the court has now largely accepted that the mine will proceed.
''While an appeal may have been successful, it would not have actually stopped the mine,'' Ms Martin said.
The second reason for not appealing was to ensure Bathurst agreed to create and protect the proposed reserve area, as opposed to an Environment Court judgement, which required Bathurst only to make ''best endeavours'' to protect the reserve area.
''By doing this, we are ensuring Bathurst won't just have to try; they'll have to deliver on their undertaking,'' Ms Martin said.
As part of an agreement with Bathurst, it will create and permanently protect the Denniston Permanent Protection Area, she said.
Ms Martin said in the past, Doc would have gone to court to protect Denniston.
''But the department was not present, which is why community groups like ours have been saddled with the high cost of legal action to protect those values,'' Ms Martin said.
''Given the coal industry is going to be allowed to mine such a sensitive part of the conservation estate, we hope the Department of Conservation will now do what is required of it by law and make sure the plants and animals on what will be left of the Denniston and Stockton plateaus are saved from extinction''.
