Auckland regional parks network: assessment of benefits & expenditure recovery options

Abstract

The Auckland Regional Council (ARC) maintains and administers a network of countryside and conservation parks, as well as the Botanic Gardens and stadia at Mount Smart. The annual budget of the Auckland Regional Parks Service (ARPS) is just under $15m per year, from which it provides a range of conservation, recreation, education and cultural heritage services. The park network has over 8.5m visits each year and provides significant use and non-use benefits to residents and visitors to the Auckland region, as well as to New Zealand as a whole. The Local Government Amendment Act No. 5 (1996) has introduced new guidelines for determining Local Government expenditure policies. In response to the new legislation, the ARC are seeking to assess the benefits from parks, and identify appropriate recovery mechanisms for expenditure on the regional parks network. • The objectives of this research are: to identify and describe the ARC's parks related activities; assess the magnitude, nature and distribution of the benefits associated with the ARC parks; identify costs associated with the provision of parks; review expenditure recovery options and their impacts; identify areas requiring further research.