The Save Happy Valley Coalition (SHVC) is an environmental

activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

movement formed with the express purpose of preventing the

Cypress mine The Cypress Mine is a proposed extension to the open cast coal mine the Stockton Mine’s operational area, to the east into the Upper Waimangaroa Mining Permit area, on the West Coast of New Zealand. In 2005, Solid Energy, a state owned ent ...

, an open cast

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

mine on the

West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, from proceeding. The Coalition is a member of the environmental umbrella group

Environment and Conservation Organisations of Aotearoa New Zealand The Environment and Conservation Organisations of Aotearoa New Zealand (ECO) was formed in 1971 under the name of CoEnCo and changed its name to ECO in 1976. It is a non-profit umbrella group and network of around 50 organisations and publish '' ...

. Individuals previously involved in the Save Happy Valley Coalition have continued their work in groups such as Coal Action Network Aotearoa and the Biodiversity Defence Society.

History

In 2004,

Solid Energy Solid Energy was the largest coal mining company in New Zealand and is a state owned enterprise of the New Zealand Government. The company was formed from the former government department State Coal Mines. It was then established as a state owne ...

, a New Zealand

State owned enterprise A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the government ...

, applied for

resource consent A resource consent is the authorisation given to certain activities or uses of natural and physical resources required under the New Zealand Resource Management Act (the "RMA"). Some activities may either be specifically authorised by the RMA or ...

s under the

Resource Management Act The Resource Management Act (RMA) passed in 1991 in New Zealand is a significant, and at times, controversial Act of Parliament. The RMA promotes the sustainable management of natural and physical resources such as land, air and water. New Zea ...

for the

Cypress Mine The Cypress Mine is a proposed extension to the open cast coal mine the Stockton Mine’s operational area, to the east into the Upper Waimangaroa Mining Permit area, on the West Coast of New Zealand. In 2005, Solid Energy, a state owned ent ...

, a proposed open-cast coal mine. The consents were granted by the Buller District Council and the West Coast Regional Council. The Buller Conservation Group, Forest and Bird and Te Runanga O Ngati Waewae, and the Department of Conservation appealed the consent decision to the

Environment Court The Environment Court of New Zealand ( mi, Te Kōti Taiao o Aotearoa) is a specialist court for plans, resource consents and environmental issues. It mainly deals with issues arising under the Resource Management Act, meaning that it covers a ...

. The appeal was declined and the resource consents confirmed in a decision issued on 24 May 2005. Jon Oosterman, a spokesperson for the campaign, vowed publicly that a

direct action Direct action originated as a political activist term for economic and political acts in which the actors use their power (e.g. economic or physical) to directly reach certain goals of interest, in contrast to those actions that appeal to oth ...

campaign would proceed to halt the mine. The

Forest and Bird Forest & Bird ( mi, Te Reo o te Taiao), also known by its formal name as the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand, is an environmental organisation specialising in the protection and conservation of New Zealand's indigenous f ...

appealed the decision in the High Court, and in December 2005, the High Court dismissed the appeal. The campaign involved organising public meetings to raise awareness, postcard and letter writing, lobbying, occupying the head office of the Solid Energy, scaling a four-story building and blockading Solid Energy's coal trains. Members occupied an area adjacent to the proposed mine site. The SHVC ''Save Happy Valley! Worth more than its weight in coal!'' leaflet describes 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 Herbfields are plant communities dominated by herbaceous plants, especially forbs and grasses. They are found where climatic conditions do not allow large woody plants to grow, such as in subantarctic and alpine tundra environments. Herbfield is ...
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 Waimangaroa is a small town located on the West Coast of New Zealand. The township lies on the south-west bank of the Waimangaroa River, at the western foot of the Denniston Plateau. It is to the north east of Westport and 13 km south-eas ...

. It is 25 kilometres north east of Westport. Reasons for the opposition to the mine include

acid mine drainage Acid mine drainage, acid and metalliferous drainage (AMD), or acid rock drainage (ARD) is the outflow of acidic water from metal mines or coal mines. Acid rock drainage occurs naturally within some environments as part of the rock weathering ...

, loss of

kiwi Kiwi most commonly refers to: * Kiwi (bird), a flightless bird native to New Zealand * Kiwi (nickname), a nickname for New Zealanders * Kiwifruit, an edible berry * Kiwi dollar or New Zealand dollar, a unit of currency Kiwi or KIWI may also ref ...

, ''

Powelliphanta ''Powelliphanta'' is a genus of large, air-breathing land snails, pulmonate gastropods in the family Rhytididae, found only in New Zealand. They are carnivorous, eating invertebrates, mostly native earthworms. Often restricted to very small areas ...

'' snail and tussock habitat, and

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

due to the burning of the extracted coal. At the nearby Mt Augustus,

has pushed another 'absolutely protected' endemic snail species to the brink of extinction, and plan to mine its last remaining 4ha of habitat.

obtained a declaration in December 2005 that

needed permission from the Ministers of Energy and Conservation to translocate the snails before mining. This permission was granted in April 2006. 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 Chris Carter, the Minister of Conservation at that time, had bowed to pressure from Solid Energy and had ignored consistent advice from the Department of Conservation. The Save Happy Valley Coalition Inc has since taken

to the High Court, and sought a Judicial Review of the Ministers' decision. In March 2007, the High Court did not uphold the review and it awarded costs of $5760 to Solid Energy. In 2007 individuals involved with the Save Happy Valley Coalition were targeted in a series of contentious anti-terror raids. In October 2012 Solid Energy announced that work on the proposed mine at Happy Valley would be delayed. On 12 June 2013, The Biodiversity Defence Society filed proceedings with the Environment Court, arguing that Solid Energy no longer holds resource consents for its proposed mine at Happy Valley, due to the expiry of the allocated time period of the consent.

Surveillance

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. In December of the same year Gilchrist was revealed to be a police informant and had infiltrated a number of activist organisations, including SHVC.

References

{{Reflist, 2 Environmental organisations based in New Zealand Coal in New Zealand Protests in New Zealand

History

Surveillance

See also

References