Save Happy Valley Coalition

The Save Happy Valley Coalition (SHVC) is an environmental activist movement formed with the express purpose of preventing the Cypress mine, an open cast coal mine on the West Coast of New Zealand, from proceeding.

The Coalition is a member of the environmental umbrella group Environment and Conservation Organisations of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Individuals previously involved in the Save Happy Valley Coalition have continued their work in groups such as Coal Action Network Aotearoa and the Biodiversity Defence Society.

In 2004, Solid Energy, a New Zealand State owned enterprise, applied for resource consents under the Resource Management Act for the Cypress Mine, a proposed open-cast coal mine. The consents were granted by the Buller District Council and the West Coast Regional Council. The Buller Conservation Group, Forest and Bird and Te Runanga O Ngati Waewae, and the Department of Conservation appealed the consent decision to the Environment Court. The appeal was declined and the resource consents confirmed in a decision issued on 24 May 2005.

Jon Oosterman, a spokesperson for the campaign, vowed publicly that a direct action campaign would proceed to halt the mine. The Forest and Bird appealed the decision in the High Court, and in December 2005, the High Court dismissed the appeal.

The campaign involved organising public meetings to raise awareness, postcard and letter writing, lobbying, occupying the head office of the Solid Energy, scaling a four-story building and blockading Solid Energy's coal trains. Members occupied an area adjacent to the proposed mine site.

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