Legal protection of land in Aotearoa New Zealand
We are working to improve our data on the extent and type of legal protection in Aotearoa New Zealand. Discover more about our work on the Protected Area Network of New Zealand database.
In Aotearoa land use and land use change is one of the biggest drivers of biodiversity loss. Legal protection helps protect land from changes that could harm biodiversity. The level of protection varies depending on the legal tool. There are many legal tools including:
- National Parks
- QE2 Covenants
- Ngā Whenua Rāhui
- Historic Reserves
- Regional Parks.
Knowing what areas of New Zealand have legal protection, and the level of legal protection, is crucial for informing where development, biodiversity management, and conservation should happen. To understand the full impact of legal protection on biodiversity in New Zealand, we need to collate and compile the information nationally rather than the current ad hoc approach.
International commitments
Aotearoa New Zealand has international commitments to monitor and report on area under legal protection. We have signed up to the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework Targets including Target 3 aiming to conserve 30% of Land, Waters and Seas.
In 2007, the Ministry for the Environment funded Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research to collate all land under legal protection in New Zealand. This was collated into a single layer known as the Protected Areas Network of New Zealand (PAN-NZ). This layer was used for a variety of purposes, including to identify threatened environments in the Threatened Environments of New Zealand which looked at indigenous cover and legal protection.
Although there have been a few ad hoc updates, PAN-NZ has not been maintained and has become out of date with new types of legal protections and changes in extent of legal protections.
View the Protected Areas Network [Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research website]
Since 2022, We have been funding Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research to determine next steps for PAN-NZ. This has included reviewing the current state of PAN-NZ to:
- identify where data is out of date
- identify where there are missing legal protection tools
- determine the state of underlying spatial data held by agencies
- understand end-user needs.
As a result, they have made recommendations, including recommended updating PAN-NZ as a centralised national database and expanding PAN-NZ to include coastal and marine protection. We are currently in discussions with other agencies to consider these recommendations and determine next steps for the project.