Nicola Toki: we wouldn't risk Kākāpō for mining, so why not do the same for lizards? - Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

The Department of Conservation's declined a permit to clear vegetation at the Central Otago site - citing missing details on rehoming thousands of lizards. 

Resources Minister Shane Jones has voiced frustration it puts hundreds of jobs at risk. 

But Chief Executive of the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society, Nicola Toki, says the lizards' existence are already under threat so mining would put their population on the brink of extinction.

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