Fantasy Film Cuts Real Scars in New Zealand Natural Area

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand, November 8, 2004 (ENS) - Film production in New Zealand began in June on "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," the C.S. Lewis story, but it is running into an environmental roadblock. The country's largest environmental group is objecting to the wide roads the producers are cutting through the pristine scenic area on the South Island where the film is shooting.

The Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand is concerned that five meter (16 foot) wide new roads with substantial earthworks have been constructed through an outstanding natural landscape in the Southern Alps, on Flock Hill Station adjacent to the scenic Arthurs Pass Highway corridor.

The roads are to provide access to one of the locations for the shooting of the multi-million dollar film production.

Forest and Bird field officer Tony Lockwood said, “The new roads are a significant permanent scar on what is otherwise a magnificent largely unmodified natural landscape."

"The scenic qualities of the area are obviously what attracted the film company to the site in the first place, yet the council has allowed those same qualities to be compromised by the construction of these roads.”

A four wheel drive track in the Selwyn District near the film location (Photo courtesy Off-Road.com)

“This was in spite of the construction work clearly breaking rules in the Council’s own planning documents requiring a consent to be granted before work could begin, and acknowledgement in the plan that the area had outstanding natural landscape values and features.”

The conservation organization complains that construction work on the roads was allowed to continue while the consent was being applied for and processed.

"The consent has since been granted by council staff without public notification or even any referral to the councilors themselves who represent the public interest in this matter,” Lockwood said.

“If I was just an ordinary bloke living in the Selywn District and I tried to do this amount of construction work without a consent, the Council would have thrown the book at me,” he said. “It’s a clear double standard.”

Andrew Adamson is directing "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." (Photo credit unknown)

The story of four young people who find their way through an old wardrobe into the world of Narnia has been beloved by children and adults alike for decades. Once in Narnia, they unite with the lion Aslan to fight the White Witch and save Narnia from perpetual darkness.

But Forest and Bird says the production is bringing the darkness of environmental harm with it and will leave a damaged landscape when filming is finished.

Lockwood said it is doubtful whether the new roads were needed at all. A good existing four wheel drive track provided access to the area which, along with helicopters, may have provided adequate access.

“Imagine the damage to many of our most beautiful and iconic landscapes if the producers of “The Lord of the Rings” had been allowed to build new five meter wide roads into each location,” he said.

“Peter Jackson seems to have had a much greater appreciation of the value of our landscapes," he said. "It’s a pity that the Selywn District Council, New Zealand director Andrew Adamson and the Walt Disney Studios and Walden Media don’t appear to share that appreciation.”