Environmental Report
Card
April 2010; INFO 492
Key points
As of July 2009,
8,763,300 hectares (ha) of New Zealand’s
land (or 33.4 per cent) was legally protected
for the primary purpose of conserving biodiversity.
Legally protected public
conservation land accounted for 8,525,000
ha of this and private conservation land
accounted for 238,300 ha.
Between 2006 and 2009,
legally protected conservation land increased
by 408,600 ha or 4.9 per cent. About three-quarters
of this increase is from land acquired and
protected through the High Country Tenure
Review.
When New Zealand is
classified into 20 different environments,
three environments have less than one per
cent of their environment as legally protected
land with native land cover, while three
environments have more than 90 per cent
of their environment as legally protected
land with native land cover.
Between 2006 and 2009,
the legally protected area of the most threatened
environments (ie, National Priority 1 environments)
increased by 3300 ha or 3.4 per cent.
Out of all the OECD
countries, New Zealand has the highest proportion
of its land area protected for conservation
purposes.
Introduction
New Zealand is rich in biodiversity, with
an estimated 80,000 different species of
native animals, plants and fungi. Compared
to other countries a large proportion of
our biodiversity occurs only in New Zealand,
and not in any other country.
New Zealand’s biodiversity
has helped shape our national character
and cultural identity. It provides recreational
and aesthetic benefits and can perform a
number of important services, such as providing
clean air and water, reducing flooding,
and maintaining healthy soils. These services
support the country’s primary production
and tourism sectors.
Legally protecting land
for conservation purposes is one method
that can help to preserve New Zealand’s
biodiversity and its services. This snapshot
report provides information on legally protected
land in New Zealand. It includes land legally
protected by the Department of Conservation,
regional councils, Queen Elizabeth the Second
National Trust (QEII Trust), and Nga Whenua
Rahui. Land protected by district and city
councils and other private initiatives is
not included as only a limited amount of
this information is in the format required
for the analysis conducted in this report.
Current situation
As of July 2009, 8,763,300 hectares of New
Zealand’s land was legally protected for
the primary purpose of conserving biodiversity.
Of this, 8,401,500 hectares has native land
cover. Native land cover includes land with
native vegetation as well as naturally occurring
non-vegetative covers such as permanent
snow and ice, alpine gravel and rock, and
waterways.
Legally protected public
land (managed by the Department of Conservation
and regional councils) accounted for 8,525,000
hectares of this and private land (protected
by the QEII Trust or Nga Whenua Rahui) accounted
for 238,300 hectares.
Recent trend (2006–2009)
Between 2006 and 2009, land legally protected
for conservation purposes in New Zealand
increased by 408,600 hectares or 4.9 per
cent, from 8,354,700 hectares to 8,763,300
hectares. Seventy-four per cent of this
increase is from land acquired and protected
through the High Country Tenure Review.
In 2009, legally protected land represented
33.4 per cent of New Zealand’s total land
area.
The area of legally
protected public land increased from 8,138,500
hectares in 2006 to 8,525,000 hectares in
2009, an increase of 386,500 or 4.7 per
cent.
The area of legally protected private land
increased from 216,200 hectares in 2006
to 238,300 hectares in 2009, an increase
of 22,100 hectares or 10.2 per cent.
Land Environments of
New Zealand (LENZ) classifies areas with
similar ecosystem characteristics and maps
them as environments across New Zealand’s
landscape. It does this by considering factors
that are likely to influence the distribution
of species, including climate, landform
and soils. LENZ maps New Zealand’s landscapes
at four different levels using 20 (Level
I), 100 (Level II), 200 (Level III) or 500
(Level IV) environments. LENZ can be considered
a surrogate for the likely pre-human pattern
of ecosystems and their associated biodiversity.
The Land Cover Database
(LCDB) uses satellite imagery to map land
cover in New Zealand. This report card draws
upon LCDB2, which is based on 2002 satellite
imagery.
Legally protected conservation land and
native vegetation: By environment
Figure 1 highlights
the variation in the protection of the different
Level 1 LENZ environments by presenting
the percentage of native land cover and
legally protected native land cover for
each environment.
The montane environments
of the ‘Permanent snow and ice’ and ‘Southern
Alps’ and the ‘Ultramafic soils’ environment
have more than 90 per cent of their environment
as legally protected land with native land
cover. The generally lowland and relative
flat environments of the ‘Eastern South
Island plains’, ‘Central well-drained recent
soils’ and ‘Western and Southern North Island
lowlands’ environments have less than
1 per cent of their environment as legally
protected land with native land cover. The
locations of these environments are highlighted
in figure 2.
Of all the Level I environments,
‘Central mountains’, ‘Central dry foothills’
and ‘Permanent snow and ice’ had the largest
increases in the percentage of environment
with legally protected native land cover
between 2006 and 2009. The ‘Ultramafic soils’,
‘Central poorly drained soils’ and ‘Northern
recent soils’ environments had the smallest
increases.
Figure 2 shows the location
of the different Level 1 LENZ environments
in New Zealand and highlights the environments
with the highest and lowest percentage of
legally protected land with native land
cover.
Figure 1: Native land
cover and legally protected native land
cover by land environment, 2009
Source: Ministry for
the Environment, Department of Conservation,
Landcare Research, QEII Trust, Nga Whenua
Rahui.
Notes:
1.Native land cover
is based on 2002 data from LCDB2.
2.The number in brackets after each environment
is the area in hectares.
3.The ‘Other’ category refers to land that
does not have an assigned LENZ environment,
such as water bodies.
Read a description of this figure
LENZ environment, with
size in hectares Percentage of environment
as legally protected native land cover,
2009 Percentage of environment as legally
protected native land cover, 2009 Percentage
of environment as native land cover without
legal protection
National level (26,216,396) 30.7% 32.0%
16.6%
Northern lowlands (1,849,354) 4.5% 4.7%
13.5%
Central dry lowlands (690,970) 0.9% 1.0%
9.2%
Western and southern North Island lowlands
(636,012) 0.8% 0.8% 3.4%
Northern hill country (2,100,274) 22.7%
22.8% 21.3%
Central dry foothills (1,323,199) 17.6%
20.5% 24.2%
Central hill country and Volcanic Plateau
(5,240,858) 19.2% 19.5% 16.8%
Northern recent soils (336,210) 5.0% 5.0%
11.4%
Central sandy recent soils (135,260) 20.4%
20.5% 14.8%
Central poorly drained soils (120,915) 1.9%
1.9% 3.1%
Central well-drained recent soils (292,471)
0.6% 0.7% 6.3%
Central upland recent soils (160,1000) 12.0%
14.3% 25.4%
Southern lowlands (801,720) 6.8% 6.9% 6.2%
Western South Island recent soils (220,436)
44.6% 44.7% 10.5%
Eastern South Island plains (2,044,364)
0.33% 0.36% 7.6%
Western South Island foothills and Stewart
Island (1,412,463) 81.7% 81.7% 8.9%
Central mountains (3,248,076) 70.5% 75.6%
17.7%
Southeastern hill country and mountains
(3,276,092) 17.3% 19.7% 34.7%
Southern Alps (1,929,747) 92.5% 94.8% 5.1%
Ultramafic soils (33,485) 92.8% 92.8% 4.3%
Permanent snow and ice (157,156) 95.2% 97.8%
2.2%
Other (210,490) 12.5% 13.9% 41.4%
Land under legal protection
for conservation purposes is managed by
a number of agencies:
The Department of Conservation
(DOC) is the central government organisation
charged with conserving the natural and
historic heritage of New Zealand. DOC is
responsible for protecting and preserving
most of the legally protected public land
in New Zealand. As of July 2009, DOC legally
protected approximately 8,458,400 hectares
of New Zealand’s land.
Regional councils are
responsible for managing the natural and
physical resources in New Zealand’s regions.
Some regional councils have regional parks
that legally protect land within their region.
In addition to maintaining native biodiversity,
regional parks also provide a range of other
services such as recreation and flood protection.
As of July 2009, regional councils legally
protected approximately 69,900 hectares
of New Zealand’s land.
The QEII Trust works
with private land owners who wish to have
some or all of their land legally protected.
A covenant is registered on the title to
the land, providing legal protection that
binds the current and all subsequent landowners.
The Trust generally contributes to the establishment
of the covenant and regularly monitors the
land to ensure it is managed in accordance
with the covenant conditions. As of July
2009, the QEII Trust legally protected approximately
89,800 hectares of New Zealand’s land.
Nga Whenua Rahui is a contestable fund that
was established to promote the protection
of native ecosystems on Maori land through
kawenta (covenants). The fund generally
contributes to the initial protection of
the land and can contribute to the management
of the land. As of July 2009, Nga Whenua
Rahui legally protected approximately 159,200
hectares of New Zealand’s land.
Figure 2: Land Environments of New Zealand
(LENZ)
Source: Land Environments
New Zealand, Ministry for the Environment.
Read a description of
this figure
The map shows New Zealand
in 20 land environments as classified by
Land Environments New Zealand. It shows
the general location of the environments
across the country.
Legally protected conservation land: By
region
Figure 3 shows that just under 20 per cent
of the North Island and over 40 per cent
of the South Island is legally protected.
In the North Island, the Bay of Plenty region
has the largest proportion of its land legally
protected, and in the South Island the West
Coast region has the largest proportion.
Between 2006 and 2009,
the Manawatu-Wanganui region had the largest
increase (2.6 per cent) in legally protected
land in the North Island, and the Canterbury
region had the largest increase (33 per
cent) in the South Island. Approximately
78 per cent of Canterbury’s increase is
from land acquired and legally protected
through the High Country Tenure Review.
The Marlborough, Otago and Southland regions’
increases were also largely due to the High
Country Tenure Review (88 per cent, 96 per
cent and 61 per cent respectively).
In the North Island,
the Taranaki region had the smallest increase
(0.2 per cent) in legally protected land
and in the South Island, the West Coast
region had the smallest increase (0.1 per
cent).
Legally protected conservation
land and native vegetation: By National
Priority 1 environments
In 2007, the Government released a statement
of national priorities for protecting rare
and threatened biodiversity on private land.
The priorities are also relevant to public
land. National Priority 1 of the statement
recommends protecting native vegetation
associated with land environments (using
LENZ Level IV) that have 20 per cent or
less remaining in native land cover. Ecological
theory estimates that the rate of biodiversity
loss increases dramatically when the amount
of available habitat of an environment drops
below 20 per cent of its original extent
(Ministry for the Environment, 2007).
In 2009, 98,700 hectares
of National Priority 1 environments with
native land cover were legally protected,
an increase of 3,300 hectares from 2006.
Figure 4 presents the
percentage of remaining native land cover
and legally protected native land cover
in National Priority 1 environments for
each region.
Of all the regions,
Tasman and Northland had the largest increases
in the percentage of National Priority 1
environments with legally protected native
land cover between 2006 and 2009. The Bay
of Plenty and West Coast regions had the
smallest increases.
Figure 4: Native land
cover and legally protected native land
cover in National Priority 1 environments
(ie, environments with 20 per cent or less
remaining in native vegetation) by region,
2009
Source: OECD 2007, Department
of Conservation, Landcare Research, QEII
Trust, Nga Whenua Rahui.
Notes:
1.Native land cover
is based on 2002 data.
2.The number in brackets after each region
is the area of National Priority 1 environments
in the region, in hectares.
Read a description of this figure
Region, with size in
hectares Percentage of National Priority
1 environment as legally protected native
land cover, 2006 Percentage of National
Priority 1 environment as legally protected
native land cover, 2009 Percentage of National
Priority 1 environment as native land cover
without legal protection
National level (8,148,1000) 1.45% 1.48%
6.26%
Northland (260,416) 1.66% 1.75% 9.21%
Auckland (160,026) 2.32% 2.36% 4.64%
Waikato (910,022) 1.86% 1.87% 3.80%
Bay of Plenty (285,637) 1.76% 1.76% 5.16%
Gisborne (398,733) 1.34% 1.42% 12.61%
Taranaki (292,038) 0.61% 0.63% 4.13%
Manawatu-Wanganui (946,776) 0.96% 1.00%
5.76%
Hawke's Bay (764,146) 1.29% 1.32% 6.95%
Wellington (385,561) 1.19% 1.23% 7.86%
Nelson (6,532) 0.49% 0.49% 9.09%
Tasman (131,844) 2.61% 2.70% 6.98%
Marlborough (177,865) 2.36% 2.40% 6.74%
West Coast (4,122) 15.50% 15.50% 17.15%
Canterbury (1,625,707) 0.36% 0.44% 4.03%
Otago (1,101,279) 0.61% 0.63% 7.01%
Southland (698,235) 2.00% 2.03% 3.46%
International comparison
By international comparison, New Zealand
has a large proportion (33.4 per cent) of
its land area legally protected for conservation
purposes. Figure 5 shows New Zealand had
the highest proportion of land area protected
for conservation purposes out of all 30
OECD countries.
References
Department of Conservation. Unpublished.
Legally protected areas by the Department.
Data provided to the Ministry for the Environment
for the purpose of this environmental snapshot
report.
Landcare Research. Unpublished.
Legally protected areas by regional councils.
Data provided to the Ministry for the Environment
for the purpose of this environmental snapshot
report.
Ministry for the Environment.
2003. Land Environments of New Zealand.
Wellington: Ministry for the Environment.
Ministry for the Environment.
2004. New Zealand Land Cover Database (LCDB2).
Wellington: Ministry for the Environment.
Ministry for the Environment.
2007. Protecting our Places: Information
about the Statement of National Priorities
for Protecting Rare and Threatened Biodiversity
on Private Land. Wellington: Ministry for
the Environment.
Nga Whenua Rahui. Unpublished.
Legally protected areas by Nga Whenua Rahui.
Data provided to the Ministry for the Environment
for the purpose of this environmental snapshot
report.
OECD. 2007. OECD Factbook
2007: Economic, Environmental and Social
Statistics. Paris: OECD Publishing.
Queen Elizabeth II National
Trust. Unpublished. Legally protected areas
by the Trust. Data provided to the Ministry
for the Environment for the purpose of this
environmental snapshot report.
