The Bay of Plenty East Coast Conservancy is one of the most severely affected regions in the Department of Conservation job cuts, says Green Party conservations spokesperson Eugenie Sage.

There will be 24 jobs lost in the BOP- East Coast region and 25 cut in the South Island West Coast, says Eugenie.

The 24 jobs to be cut in DoC's East Coast-Bay of Plenty region include the loss of seven jobs in Gisborne, four positions in Rotorua, four in Whakatane and four jobs in Opotoki.

The job cuts are replacing ranger staff in the field – where the work is being done – with bureaucrats in Wellington.

There are 140 jobs being lost in DOC field centres and regional centres while 29 new positions are being created in Wellington.

'Our concern is the staff positions that are going are the field staff and area office staff,” says Eugenie.

'The Prime Minister claimed that these were just middle managers, but these have a very strong field element in their work.

'They often organise a lot of the logistics for the field staff who are doing the predator controls, threatened species work, the weed inventories, and that sort of stuff.”

The way DOC is currently organised is field centres report to area offices which report conservancies, to the national office.

'Cutting these area office and field centre positions will mean a huge loss of conservation experience and expertise. These are frontline staff delivering real conservation work to protect our preeminent conservation areas, our national parks, and threatened species and ecosystems.

'In a large conservancy such as East Coast–Bay of Plenty it is important that DoC has staff on the ground close to conservation lands and coast that they are responsible for. The restructuring cuts field staff while putting more people in city offices in Wellington and Christchurch.

'Conservation staff in area offices and field centres, manage and maintain a huge network and number of visitor facilities important for recreation and tourism, from short roadside walks and picnic areas, to longer tramping and walking tracks.

'So you have got a lot of staff going from offices close to where the key conservation areas are, and instead having 29 new positions created in Wellington,” says Eugenie.

'You can't do conservation work on the ground, and the liaison with communities from Wellington.”

The job cuts in the Bay of Plenty are mainly in the outlying areas; Aniwaniwa at Lake Waikaremoana loses four jobs, Murupara three, Rotorua four, and Tauranga loses one job.

'So there's a major concern with the job cuts particularly happening at field centres and area offices level, and taking away a huge number of staff with considerable conservation expertise,” says Eugenie.

The cuts announced last week come after the department's budget was cut by $4million in 2009.

'The department's got to find another $8million this year, because the government across the public sector is not funding increases in CPI superannuation, so DOC is cutting 140 staff.”

DOC staff have two weeks to make comments, before the final structure is announced. Then affected staff will have to apply for new, mostly lower paid jobs within the department, or be made redundant, says Eugenie.