FMC has launched a campaign ‘Remarkable Outdoors’, designed to build the profile of conservation and outdoor issues as New Zealand heads into September’s general election.

FMC, which is carefully apolitical, believes that genuine progress in conservation and in the outdoor opportunities and lifestyle we enjoy as New Zealanders requires a consensus. Our success can only be measured across generations. Where that consensus exists it should be celebrated, and where it is emerging there needs to be continued thought and discussion.

FMC has prepared a series of questions, or challenges, that will be put directly to political parties. FMC also asks our members and the wider outdoor community to take these issues that are important to you and raise them with your local candidates, or discuss them with your family, friends or work colleagues. The booklet outlining the challenges, and further information about the campaign, can be found at: https://fmc.org.nz/what-we-do/campaigns/remarkables/.

A symbolic plank to this campaign, is the call for a new national park in the Otago/Southland highcountry – The Remarkables National Park – encompassing the vast highland area that separates the mighty Clutha river from the plains of Southland, further details on this proposal can be found here.