Freedom camping issues focus of forum

Messy issues being created by freedom campers within the tourist, environmental and conservation sectors will be discussed at a meeting of the New Zealand Freedom Camping Forum in Auckland on Wednesday.

The meeting is being organised by the Tourism Industry Association (TIA) and will feature more than 20 stakeholders from around the country with links to freedom camping.

The TIA formed the Freedom Camping Forum two years ago - a group initiative to respond to growing community unrest about freedom campers.

Funding of $20,000 has come from the Ministry of Tourism for the forum's work, the TIA website states.

TIA advocacy manager Geoff Ensor said the group of invited organisations included representatives from rental campervan companies, local authorities, the NZ Motor Caravan Association, Tourism NZ, the Department of Conservation and NZ Police.

Tension within communities over freedom camping was extremely high and unless more was done to push the educational message something would give, he recently wrote in a TIA blog.

A collective approach was needed by the various organisations to ensure the "strongest possible outcomes" were realised at next week's "action-focused meeting", Mr Ensor told the Otago Daily Times.

The forum needed to do more to communicate with the small communities around New Zealand which were bearing the brunt of environmental damage being created by freedom campers, Mr Ensor said.

While he acknowledged there were valid criticisms regarding a tendency by stakeholders to focus on the freedom camping issue, the forum had taken action on several fronts, Mr Ensor said.

A website had been created (www.camping.org.nz) to provide information for travellers and visitors about the expectations New Zealanders had for freedom campers, while standardised "national" signage for camping sites and no-camping sites had also been produced, Mr Ensor said.

A key focus was ensuring the message to freedom campers got through "further up the line".

This included targeting visitors when they came into the country, rental campervan companies driving the educational message home, getting councils and/or the police involved to ensure there was adequate enforcement responsibilities, while also trying to upgrade toilet facilities at various locations, working alongside the Department of Conservation.

Major events, such as next year's Rugby World Cup, provided an opportunity for the forum to put initiatives into place and work towards achieving a point of focus.

However, it was easy to over-react to such an event, Mr Ensor said.

The number of people in the country specifically for the World Cup would probably be fewer than what was normal during New Zealand's busiest tourism and visitor months in summer, Mr Ensor said.

The Freedom Camping Forum meeting takes place on Wednesday, April 21.