This little snippet is really extraordinary when you think about it. Dr Cullen, the NZ Minister of Finance, recently stated:
".... that the cost so far of the Government's war against the painted apple moth in West Auckland is almost as much as if the moth had been left to its own devices."
More comment on this later. Just let it sink in for a bit for now!
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Maf's policy document "Potential Economic Impact on NZ of the Painted Apple Moth" July 2000 makes it clear that the effects of the moth would be relatively small. It goes on to say that "No introduced insects have yet caused serious problems to indigenous forests". Then, even more tellingly it says: "A more effective, lower cost way to control forest pests in the long term is through biological control..."
(Such controls are now used to control everything from the looper moth (a forestry pest) to gorse).
So why was the moth invasion made into such a full-blown emergency then? Do we have economic drivers at work, some sort of backroom deals around the sale of the forests to the Chinese, or pressure from Foray48b interests?? Why the panic if the facts were that "the effects of the moth would be relatively small"? Anyone got any clues on this?
Check out Objection to Aerial Spraying - Letter to Lynn Pillay for a few answers.
Thanks for that, I've made a posting about this excellent letter.
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