Conservation Minister Tama Potaka says processing applications quicker means businesses get certainty faster. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The government is celebrating faster processing of applications for the use of conservation land, including by using AI.
In a statement, Conservation Minister Tama Potaka said the application backlog had dropped from 1300 last September, to 550 now - with processing times improved by 180 percent.
He said AI had been used to help scan documents, and one-off drone permits now took just five working days, compared to the previous "weeks".
"We're achieving these results through a data-driven approach and smarter, more efficient systems and processes, including new technology such as AI tools helping to scan statutory documents," he said.
"Processing applications quicker means businesses get certainty faster. DOC is enabling a wide range of activities that connect people with nature and support local economies, while more quickly declining proposals where the effects on nature or heritage cannot be avoided, remedied, or mitigated.
"Around a third of the applications DOC has processed since February are related to tourism, the country's second-largest export earner, where more than 380 tourism related applications in the last three months were processed, including guiding activities in Fiordland and Heli hunt and fish concessions for helicopter landings in the North Island."
Most applications for use of conservation land are for tourism operations, but the Department of Conservation this month also approved Kokiri Lime's application to quarry 1ha of rock needed for critical roading and flood protection infrastructure projects in South Westland.
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