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Southland's coastline to be monitored by volunteers in new programme

Friday 27 July 2012, 8:52PM

By Southland District Council

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SOUTHLAND

A new monitoring programme by the Southland Coastal Heritage Inventory Project, which involves the voluntary recording of cultural heritage sites along the Southland/Murihiku coastline, was launched at the Bluff Marae last Friday, 20 July. The Kaitiaki Monitoring Programme: Murihiku is the first initiative of its kind in New Zealand and relies upon the work of volunteers from Murihiku Runaka to monitor heritage sites in their area along the coast.

The initiative has been developed by the Southland Coastal Heritage Inventory Project (SCHIP), which is a partnership between the New Zealand Historic Places Trust (NZHPT) and Te Ao Marama Ltd on behalf of the Kaitiaki Runaka o Murihiku, Southland District Council, Environment Southland, the Department of Conservation and the New Zealand Archaeological Association.

Volunteers on the programme will regularly visit archaeological sites, recording what they observe of the area and reporting back to the Kaitiaki monitoring co-ordinators with any changes or results every six months or when necessary.

Southland District Council's resource management planner Marcus Roy has been attending the project meetings on behalf of Council. "The volunteers will solely focus on monitoring sites that are open to public access along the coastal margins and unformed legal road," Mr Roy said.

"They will evaluate known sites that are particularly susceptible to coastal erosion and possibly discover new, previously unknown sites that have recently eroded from the dune systems".

Since 2003, SCHIP has been involved in monitoring and management of cultural heritage sites along the Southland/Murihiku coastline. The collected results are being used to provide advice to project partners on the protection and future management of coastal cultural heritage sites in Murihiku.