A funding boost from the government will support Otago Regional Council’s (ORC) work on high country erosion control.

ORC has been granted $429,537 from the Hill Country Erosion Fund (HCEF), which is managed by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), in partnership between MPI, Te Uru Rākau – New Zealand Forest Service, regional councils and landowners.

“The objective of the HCEF programme is to support landowners to plan for and treat erosion-prone land and to put in place good sustainable management practices to help protect vulnerable hill country,” ORC environmental implementation manager Libby Caldwell said.

Nationally the government has allocated $25.2M to 14 regional erosion control programmes to help reduce the severe weather impacts and protect around 21,000 hectares of hill country.

Forestry minister Peeni Henare said the increase in frequency and severity of flooding events across the country due to climate change will affect erosion to the tune of $250M per year.

Libby said the funding will help increase ORC’s knowledge of hill slope erosion, both areas of risk and actual erosion, which will include the collation and analysis of existing data to prioritise intervention effort.

“We’ll be looking to improve ORC’s engagement with landowners, through group workshops, one-on-one landholder meetings, information exchanges and mentoring from other regional councils,” she said.

The $429,537 is part of the project’s overall $1.07M budget, spread over four years.

It will deliver catchment or on-farm outcomes such as mapping erosion priorities at sub-catchment scale, supporting a council staff member to focus on erosion control and land management, plus assessment, planning and advice for ORC staff and landholders.

Aside from workshops, hui and landowner meetings, there will be inter-regional information exchanges and in this funding round, Libby said.

PHOTO: hikingscenery.com