Nine Department of Conservation (Doc) workers in Gisborne have taken redundancy after the scrapping of the East Coast Hawke's Bay Conservancy and those positions may not be filled again.
Doc northern manager of operations Barbara Browne said the decision was entirely up to individual staff.
"Nine staff have put up their hands and asked for redundancy in Gisborne. It is a very individual decision - everyone has a different direction in life."
She could not identify what positions would be lost with the scrapping of the conservancy on July 1.
Sources told the Gisborne Herald the pou kua taiao Maori liaison officer and a statutory land management administrator would be lost - both were involved in the Treaty of Waitangi claim for Te Urewera National Park.
Other positions included were at least two directly involved with community liaison, as well as a planner and fire control officer.
In addition to the nine positions, five people had already been transferred to other districts, the source said.
During the consultation process and when the final outcome of the review was announced, Ms Browne said Doc would be looking to reduce the number of redundancies and the same number of jobs would be kept.
Eleven staff would now move from office positions into the field.
There were "one or two positions still to be confirmed", she said.
"We are assessing where we will be putting additional staff."
Gisborne Forest and Bird chairman Grant Vincent said these redundancies were "significant" and hoped conservation work would continue at a high level.
The restructure will close the East Coast-Hawke's Bay Conservancy and have the area's chief conservator based in Rotorua as part of the East Coast-Bay of Plenty Conservancy.
Four area offices would be reduced to two - based in Gisborne and Murupara. The Gisborne area office will cover Whakatane and Opotiki.
NZPA
source: newshub archive
