Ministry of Conservation and Land Management

Ministry of Conservation and Land Management
Formed	16 March 1992
Central Office	R.V. Cowan House 19-23 West Mall Kingsbury, CENT
Employees	2,500
Senior administration
Minister of State	Bryan Russell MHA
Permanent Secretary	George Jenkins
Directorates
Arts and Culture Environment
Executive agencies
List Environment Agency Historic Buildings Agency National Mapping Authority National Planning Authority Royal National Parks Service

The Ministry of Conservation and Land Management is the government ministry responsible for the protection of New Ingrea's natural environment, cultural heritage, land management, and urban planning. Established through the merger of the ministries of Conservation and Lands in March 2004, the ministry has a workforce of around 9,500 staff based at R.V. Cowan House in Kingsbury. The Minister of State for Conservation and Land Management is the Right Honourable Bryan Russell MHA.

Responsibilities

The Ministry is responsible for the management all of New Ingrea's nature reserves, marine parks and wilderness areas. It also manages a number of heritage sites, including heritage listed homes, aboriginal sites and former battlegrounds. An additional role of the ministry is to provide support for the protection and rehabilitation of land and water resources damaged through overuse and poor farming practices.

The ministry is also charged with managing New Ingrea's land resources, including land titles and mapping; as well as matters pertaining to land planning, including town planning.

Senior administration

Ministers

The Ministry of Conservation and Land Management is headed by the Minister of State for Conservation and Land Management, who is supported by a Deputy Minister and a Parliamentary Secretary, all of whom are supported a large body of civil servants assigned to them to manage the ministers office and ministry.

Office		Name		Term
	Minister of State for Conservation and Land Management		The Rt Hon. Bryan Russell MHA	2014-present
	Deputy Minister for Planning Assistant Minister for Conservation and Land Management		Kate Ambrose MHA	2012-present
	Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of State for Conservation and Land Management		Owen Jamieson MHA	2012-present

Permanent Secretary and other senior officials

Office	Name
Permanent Secretary of State	Sir George Jenkins
Permanent Under-Secretary of State Director-General for Arts and Culture	Joseph Mitchell
Permanent Under-Secretary of State Director-General for the Environment	Nicole Harris
Chief Operations Officer Director-General for Corporate Services	Bruce Caldwell
Director of the Environment Agency	Steven Jones
Director of the Historic Buildings Agency	Michael Simmons
Surveyor-General of New Ingrea Director of the National Mapping Authority	Craig Anderson
Director of the National Planning Authority	Amy Harris
Director of National Parks	Ann Sheppard

Directorates and executive agencies

Directorates

The ministry has three directorates it is presently responsible for:

Directorate of the Arts and Culture

Created in 2004 by the merger of the Directorate of the Arts from the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Directorate of Cultural Heritage from the Ministry of Conservation, the directorate is responsible for all formulating arts policy and overseeing the various artistic and cultural bodies across the country. In order to achieve this aim, the directorate is required to advise the Government on all aspects of the arts and cultural activity in New Ingrea. This aim is achieved through the monitoring and co-ordination of the activities of the various national cultural institutions; the support and encouragement the arts in New Ingrea through independent arts organisations (the government provides little in the way of funding directly to artists in New Ingrea); and finally to manage all Government-sponsored arts or cultural events, and various the scholarships and awards that attract public funding in New Ingrea. The directorate is not managed by a deputy minister, and reports directly to the Minister of State.

Directorate of the Environment

Charged with overseeing all matters relating to New Ingrea's natural heritage, conservation of New Ingrea's flora and fauna, and protection of the environment from excessive pollution threats. To this end, the functions of the directorate includes the identification and preservation of all national parks and wilderness areas in New Ingrea, the development of policies that protect native flora and fauna, the built environment, archaeological remains, and moveable cultural heritage. The policies of the directorate also cover activities that aim to a achieve a clean and hazard-free environment in New Ingrea, which in the past has included such diverse polices as 'climate change', reforestation, and waste management and disposal. As a policy directorate, it does not undertake any regulation of the aforementioned activities, with most of these devolved to a number of executive agencies and other government entities. The directorate is not managed by a deputy minister, and reports directly to the Minister of State.

Corporate Services Directorate

As with all other ministries in the Government of New Ingrea, the Ministry of Conservation and Land Management has a Corporate Services Directorate. The Directorate is responsible for those 'back-end' activities that involve the delivery of enterprise-wide support services to all policy directorates and executive agencies. The aim of the directorate is to provide quality client service based on the principles of specialised knowledge, best practices, and superior technology solutions, to serve the internal customer base of the Ministry, and certain circumstances some or all of the Ministry's business partners. The directorate is divided into five 'branches', which provide specific support for a particular area of expertise, these being Estates Management, Finance, Information Technology, Personnel Services, and Procurement. The Corporate Services Directorate is headed by a Chief Operations Officer, with the rank of Permanent Under-Secretary of State, who in turn reports personally to the Permanent Secretary of State and the Minister.

Executive agencies

The ministry also contains several important agencies which have specialised regulatory or administrative functions:

Environment Agency

Further information: Environment Agency

Under the provisions of the Environment Protection Act (No. 7 of 1999), the functions of the Environment Agency are quite varied. In the first instance, the agency must ensure that the best practicable measures are being taken by individuals and businesses to protect the environment in accordance with the Clean Environment Act (No. 34 of 1990) and other legislation. To achieve this end, the agency is responsible for co-ordinating the activities of all other public authorities in the investigation and reporting on the alleged non-compliance with environment protection legislation for the purposes of prosecutions or other regulatory action. The agency also undertakes a number of reporting functions, by reporting on the efficacy of the Environment Protection Act, reviewing the regulatory framework for environmental protection, and advising on its rationalisation and simplification. To this end, the agency publishes an annual report on the state of the environment, and provides advice to government, industry, commerce, and other members of the community on environment protection best practice in New Ingrea.

Historic Buildings Agency

Further information: Historic Buildings Agency

The Historic Buildings Agency is charged with the management and maintenance of New Ingrea's built heritage. To this end, the agency is funded to acquire any historical houses of unique historic and architectural interest in to house museums for the enjoyment of the general public. The assets vested in the agency also extend to the grounds of any building acquired, and the fabric and contents of the said same buildings. The agency is also tasked with the provision of educational and cultural resources, with the aim of increasing public knowledge of New Ingrea's built heritage, and ensuring that the public have the full enjoyment of those buildings. The agency was established by way of the passage of the Historic Houses Act (No. 18 of 1991), and was initially charged with the management and maintenance of some six historic houses. As of the 2012, the agency owns and operates museums in some 50 historic houses, offices, workshops, factories, and other buildings across New Ingrea.

National Mapping Authority

Further information: National Mapping Authority

Responsible for the provision of mapping and surveying services in New Ingrea, the National Mapping Authority was established as an executive agency by regulation in May 1971. Previously all mapping functions had been undertaken by the Ministry of Lands. Today, the authority is responsible for the publication of the all topographic and basic cadastral maps of New Ingrea, the maintenance of the geodetic survey network, the supply of aerial photographic coverage, the production of miscellaneous tourist maps, the production of aerial photography, and project mapping for other government departments and agencies. All of the authority's map and surveying data is made available in digital and conventional printed formats, and is done so at no charge to those wishing the data for non-commercial purposes, although printed copies are charged to recover costs, and commercial users must pay for a licence to access the data. The authority is led by the Surveyor-General of New Ingrea, currently held by Craig Anderson.

National Planning Authority

Further information: National Planning Authority

The National Panning Authority is an agency charged with the responsibility of overseeing and coordinating all aspects of town and country planning in New Ingrea. The Authority is tasked with securing the orderly and economic development and use of land, as well as the preservation of protected lands (such as green belts and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty), from undue and untimely development. The authority was established by the passage of the Land Planning Act (No. 34 of 1975), which with some amendments, has continued to operate since. The Authority does not, and can not make decisions on planning applications, with all such powers held exclusively by regional and county councils. The Authority reports straight to the Deputy Minister for Planning in the Jones ministry, a position currently held by Kate Ambrose MHA.

Royal National Parks Service

Further information: Royal National Parks Service

The agency responsible for management and protection of New Ingrea's parks and reserves, the service was established by way of the passage of the National Parks and Wildlife Act (No. 35 of 1927) in May 1929. The primary duties of the service are to ensure the conservation of protected fauna and flora throughout New Ingrea; promote community awareness, understanding and appreciation of the conservation of nature and our cultural heritage; investigate and acquire land for inclusion in a system of protected areas to conserve a complete range of the natural environment of the kingdom; manage historic places within the protected areas system and to acquire historic places of significance; manage these areas and culturally significant feature for enjoyment and conservation; and finally, to identify, protect and manage areas of natural wilderness. The service is headed by a Director of National Parks, currently Ann Sheppard. The service has a long history in New Ingrea, and was recognised for it's service to the country when it received the 'Royal' prefix in October 1976.