It comes as councils around the country wrestle with public consultation over freedom camping bylaws in individual regions. "They also monitor popular freedom camping sites to ensure people are camping in places where this is permitted, behaving responsibly and not damaging the environment," Aikman said. Issues around freedom camping are dealt with by a targeted working group set up by Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis in March last year. "The goal is to address challenges around the impact of freedom camping on local communities and the environment, while at the same time enabling individual communities to take advantage of the opportunities freedom camping presents," Davis said at the time. Thousands of unruly freedom campers have been issued infringements under regional freedom camping bylaws over the past two years.

Source: Otago Daily Times April 07, 2019 00:56 UTC