Land search and rescue incidents cost the country $116 million in health costs last year, but an economic assessment report shows the cost would be much higher without LandSAR volunteers.
The report, by economists Helen and Guy Scott, calculated the health and injury costs of people rescued from the 714 land search and rescue incidents in the 2006/07 financial year.
LandSAR was involved in 224 of the incidents.
In the Southern LandSAR region - Otago, Southland and Stewart Island - 441 man hours were spent on 42 search and rescue operations in Otago and Southland during that period.
The report showed that, nationally, LandSAR volunteers contributed $3 million of time to the searches. LandSAR deputy chairman John Scobie, from Blenheim, said the figure told only part of the story.
‘‘We have 2500 people who are ready to drop what they are doing at a moment's notice and go and look for people who are lost.
‘‘They give up their family time and put their own safety at risk and invest their emotions in looking for other people,'' Mr Scobie said.
Volunteers also usually paid for their own transport, food and equipment, which was not counted in the report.
The SAR head of police Senior Sergeant Geoffrey Logan said it was a tribute to LandSAR that the cost was not higher.
‘‘If the police did not have access to [LandSAR's] voluntary resources, the costs would have to come out of police's and essentially, taxpayers' pockets.''
The report concluded that the service provided a savings not quantifiable for police and for injury costs - without Land-SAR, rescues would be less effective, scaled back or, at worst, not undertaken because of fewer resources.
Mr Scobie said the report was commissioned as part of a new strategic direction for the recently restructured LandSAR organisation.
LandSAR's national office was funded by New Zealand Police before the restructuring.
The organisation was looking to diversify its funding sources, its 2007 annual report said.
It already received funding from donors and the outdoor safety lottery and had applied to several gaming trusts for funds. LandSAR was also looking to engage with major commercial organisations for sponsorship, the report said.
