The Otago Conservation Board is running out of funding to meet just when its workload is increasing as it deals with the region's 10-year management plan.
Only halfway through its financial year the board has an estimated $2518 left of its allocated budget of $22,500.
The remaining funds were only enough to cover a proposed joint board workshop around the conservation management strategy and a one-day workshop planned for a briefing on the strategy next month, a paper considered by the board at a recent meeting said.
It suggested the nine-member board reduced its meeting and field trips planned for next year and not continue with plans for joint meetings with other region's boards.
Pressure had been put on the budget by the Government's decision to increase board members' pay in May when the new boards were put in place. Members pay rose from $140 to $180 and chairmens' pay from $180 to $240, but there was no corresponding budget increase.
Board chairman Pat Garden said the board needed to be allocated sufficient funds to cover the strategy's process.
The board was due to receive the strategy back from the Department of Conservation and then had six months to assess it before releasing it to the New Zealand Conservation Authority for approval.
While Doc Conservation Partnerships director Barry Hanson had indicated there was some ability to allocate more funds to the board, it would be limited, Mr Garden said.
Mr Hanson said Doc was committed to supporting the board financially given the change to the way the board was remunerated but its workload needed to be prioritised.
''We do not want to change or reduce that as the minister decided to remunerate you more fairly.''
The department did not want the board to do less just because its remuneration had been adjusted but it did need to fit in the strategy process.
Board member Vance Boyd said finances aside, the time commitment in keeping up the board's normal timetable and the strategy process could be too much for some members and lead to more apologies.
A suggestion by board member Jim Williams, that the committee suspend all field trips until the strategy was ''put to bed'', was supported by the board.
Mr Garden said he would be raising the ''resource constraints'' at a meeting of board chairmen.
Board support officer Ainslee Hooper was asked to provide Doc with information on different levels of meetings needed to cope with the strategy and the board's work, before it decided on extra financial support.
