offsetting annual carbon emissions from a thermal-based, gas turbine generator of 575,000 tonnes of carbon. The project is costed at about $600 million and to be economic would have to be scaled up rapidly to near full capacity. However, while the Department of Conservation has approved the project, and has made substantial environmental monitoring conditions part of the consent, the project also has objectors on the grounds of claimed influences on the local ecosystems and charter fishing (see the section above on fisheries). Appeals before the Environment Court are still likely. Management issues Management of the Kaipara Harbour does not have a central administration. Management is distributed among the Kaipara District Council, Auckland Council, Northland Regional Council, the Department of Conservation's Northland and Auckland section, and the Ministry of Fisheries. The Ministry of Fishing allocates quota for the north west region of New Zealand as a whole, but does not tailor quota specifically for the Kaipara. Local iwi feel they are not sufficiently involved in management issues, and to further compound matters, the local iwi is split between Te Uri-o-Hau in the northern part and Te Taoū in the southern part. Environmental issues As of 2011, the environmental state of the harbour has been called as "nearing crisis" and "in significant decline", with shrinking fish and shellfish stocks, more sedimentation, declining water quality and competition for resource use and development being noted as the main issues, with "ninety-nine per cent of the rivers in the catchment [are] polluted". As part of the worldwide trend, there is a decline in biodiversity within the Kaipara. The timber industry removed most of the native forest. Much of the kauri and kahikatea forest, and scrub and riparian vegetation, has been replaced with farm and urban areas. Mangrove forests and wetlands have been "reclaimed". Soil erosion has increased on the land and sedimentation in the harbour. Shellfish abundance has declined, especially toheroa, scallops, tuatua, cockles and pipi. Finfish like mullet, snapper, kanae and school shark have diminished. Habitat fragmentation has also occurred. Natural vegetation in the Kaipara catchments have been reduced to islands of wetlands and forest in man-made landscapes—separated by urban areas, roads, exotic forests and pastures. More information is needed on biodiversity in the Kaipara Harbour and habitats in associated coastal areas. A recent pilot survey found that habitats in the estuaries are still extensive, but ninety percent of land cover is no