Sky reserve promoted in Paris

The pressure is on to prepare a case for Lake Tekapo to be designated one of the world's first World Heritage starlight reserves.

Last week, the proposal to set up a starlight reserve in the area was put to an international United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) conference in Paris by former New Zealand Member of Parliament and strong advocate for the reserve, Margaret Austin.

Now a case study will have to be prepared with Government, regional and local support by April.

Mrs Austin, who is chairwoman of the Starlight Reserve Committee set up for Tekapo, is returning to New Zealand this week to begin preparing the case study, including getting a commitment from the Government.

The committee consists of Mrs Austin, Canterbury University's Prof John Hearnshaw and Tekapo businessman Graeme Murray, who has been the driving force behind the project.

Plans to pursue World Heritage status were announced last year.

Mr Murray said yesterday one of the first steps would have to be formalising the committee, including getting more people to help with the case study.

The committee would then need to get the help of an expert to prepare the case study in time.

The proposal is to draw on Tekapo's links with the Mt John observatory and its clear night sky to have the area declared a starlight reserve, which will be an attraction for visitors and publicise its unique attributes.

Mrs Austin said after last week's conference presentation that New Zealand needed to move swiftly so the case study could be tabled at the Unesco World Heritage Site working party in April.

The Tekapo presentation was well received in Paris, particularly its cultural significance and the Pacific people's knowledge of the stars.

"Interestingly two speakers referred to Tekapo and showed images besides myself," she said.

Unesco has set up two working parties, one to look at monu-ments related to astronomy and the other on starlight reserves.

They would define the values and set the criteria which would include the landscape, sky-scape, the clarity of the night sky, aspects of culture both tangible and intangible.

Eight case studies would be included, of which Tekapo would be one.

"This requires Government commitment at the New Zealand end and I will be endeavouring to get this when I return on January 29," she said.

The working party is expected to report on the Tekapo and other case studies next year.

"Clearly the timeframe is longer than we expected, but Unesco must ensure that its processes and protocols are adhered to at each step," Mrs Austin said.

The Tekapo starlight reserve bid had achieved considerable clarity as a result of her presentation in Paris and the Tekapo group now had to draft the case study for inclusion in the work of the working party looking at all world starlight reserves.

Through the Mackenzie District Council, Tekapo had by-laws already in place and monitoring to ensure further development did not impact on the quality of the night sky.

Already, about 1.4 million people visited Tekapo each year. Mt John, above the Tekapo township, was considered the most accessible observatory in the world.

The observatory is home to six telescopes including New Zealand's biggest telescope which measures 1.8m across and can observe 50 million stars each clear night.