8AM: Department of Conservation is expected to annouce up to 100 job cuts today, but frontline staff are not expected to be impacted.

Prime Minister John Key says the department will release details of the restructure this morning.

The Department of Conservation is expected to lay off more than 100 frontline staff tomorrow morning.

Forest & Bird says a Department of Conservation plan to lay off frontline staff in favour of recruiting volunteers will seriously impact on the wildlife and landscapes DOC exists to protect.

More than 265 jobs have been cut from the Department since National took power with 96 positions cut in the last restructuring in 2012 alone.

The on-going job losses follow a $54 million cut in the Department's budget in 2009 and further funding pressure because of Government's singular focus on reducing spending.

Forest & Bird advocacy manager Kevin Hackwell says they are also concerned at a shift in DOC's focus away from its core conservation work to commercial development and recreation.

'Volunteers are crucial to conservation in New Zealand, including the work that Forest & Bird does. But DOC has a unique role in part to protect the remote parts of the country and their threatened plants and animals that aren't close to any towns or cities. These remote areas are impossible for volunteers to reach regularly.

'Low numbers of people do not mean low numbers of possums, stoats and rats – quite the opposite. There's no substitute for on the spot work by a paid and highly skilled staff member based in a remote but critical part of the country.

'When we go to hospital for an operation we expect our surgeon to be a properly qualified professional – we don't expect to find a volunteer doing the job.”

Kevin says the government is putting huge pressure on DOC to cut costs and Forest & Bird is very concerned the department's response to those cuts will significantly undermine both its professional capacity and its ability to deliver good conservation management.

'DOC plays a crucial role in protecting New Zealand's clean green brand. That brand is worth billions to this country through the sale of everything from holidays to wine, food and clothing. And DOC has a legislative duty to protect for the future the native plants and animals that are found only in New Zealand.”

Forest & Bird believes DOC's reliance on more commercial sponsorship is also risky and until recently it looked like Solid Energy would be a major sponsor.

DOC's operating budget for the last financial year was $335 million – $25 million less than in 2008.

'The price of constantly undermining DOC will be high indeed for our native plants and animals and for generations of New Zealanders to come.”

Along with Forest & Bird, the Green Party is worried the job cuts will put the native wildlife and landscapes at risk further undermining New Zealand's ‘100% Pure' brand.

Green Party conservation spokesperson Eugenie Sage says the National Government's job cuts at DOC are hurting the environment and will leave DOC without the expertise it needs to protect the wild places we love.

'Rather than investing in nature and the professional expertise needed to protect our special native plants and wildlife, this Government is prepared to risk it all for savings less than the cost of a Solid Energy bail out.

'The technical expertise and commitment of DOC staff are vital for conservation in New Zealand. The funding pressure that National's budget cuts have put on DOC will put endangered species at risk.”

Eugenie believes volunteers and businesses cannot do the work of skilled conservation staff or meet the funding shortfall as the Department is hoping.

Last year, revenues from commercial sponsorship was only $3.3 million, says Eugenie.

'DOC manages more than a third of the land in New Zealand. Sixty per cent of New Zealanders consider conservation to be as important as education, health, and law and order.

'We need to invest in protecting our unique plants and animals which are found nowhere else on Earth.

'Our 100% Pure brand is intimately tied up with our strong environmental reputation. National's reckless job cuts and the resulting loss of expertise are undermining all that.”