A small sub-committee regularly make submissions on anything considered important to the kaupapa of Sustainable Wairarapa. These submissions may be with regard to national law change proposals, local government proposals, or strategic proposals by entities such as the Department of Conservation.
If you wish to discuss one of our submissions with us, please email info@sustainablewairarapa.org.nz
Dear Mike Butterick
Sustainable Wairarapa Inc. (SWI) writes to share our concerns about the Conservation Act (Land Management) Amendment Bill currently being drafted and expected to be introduced to Parliament before the end of 2025.
The Bill is being presented to New Zealanders as a positive change that balances economic activity on conservation land with improved conservation outcomes by streamlining concession application processes and introducing flexibility in land exchanges and disposals. However, SWI is concerned that the changes being made will enable concession consents that allow projects on conservation land to bypass the standard assessment and consultation steps, resulting in rapid decisions with little or no public input.
Further, SWI is concerned that the amendments will enable the sale of conservation land that belongs to all New Zealanders.
Our concerns fall into six main points:
1. Conservation estate land is the basis of the water supply for many communities in New Zealand
2. Conservation estate land is useful for slowing water down and preventing flooding 3. Biodiversity concerns
4. Te tiriti concerns
5. The Government only manages the land for all New Zealanders; they do not own it. Therefore, it is not the Government’s to sell. No decisions about conservation land should be made without further public consultation.
6. Decisions to dispose of land or rights given on multi-decade contracts are irreversible for generations to come.
Point 1: Conservation estate land is the basis of the water supply for many communities in New Zealand.
For most New Zealand communities, rainfall is the basis of the water supply, whether it be groundwater or taken directly from a stream or river. The Tararua Ranges conservation estate is the basis of the water supply for most Wairarapa communities, so maintaining the estate in good condition is essential to deliver both high-quality water and water in manageable volumes.
Land covered by native bush, slows water down, reduces soil erosion, nutrient loss, and sediment deposition into rivers during heavy rain. Selling this land, or granting long-term leases on the land, places water supplies at risk.
How can local government and the proposed combined Tararua-Wairarapa Council Controlled Organisation (CCO) manage drinking water through Local Water Done Well, when the source of that water has been delivered into the hands of private interests?
Extractive industries like mining, forestry, and farming impact water quality, whether through direct contamination of rivers by runoff or through leaching into groundwater. The result is a degraded water supply with the potential to harm human health, be it through biological (consider the situation of the 2016 Havelock North campylobacter contamination) or toxic chemical contamination. Water contaminated with acid mine drainage and heavy metals is a reality for any waterway near a mine. Just ask the residents of Ngakawau, a village situated on the Ngakawau River at the base of the Stockton Coal Mine near Westport.
The content of the Conservation Act (Land Management) Amendment Bill is unknown. However, SWI is concerned that the amendments will make it possible for high-value land to be sold or leased to international investors who are not required to account for
the impact they have on local water. In so doing, waterways on the conservation estate, and downstream of it, could become unfit for human consumption.
1News at Six [17 August 2025] captured Shane Jones saying, “I want us to exploit at every opportunity, our natural resources”. SWI questions “at what cost?”
Point 2: Conservation estate land is useful for slowing water down and preventing flooding.
As adverse weather events increase in both frequency and severity, the need to slow water down has become evident, and good forest cover slows down runoff during a deluge. Research in the Waitakari Ranges showed that the forest absorbed approximately 60% of the water that fell there during Cyclone Gabrielle. The flood damage in the Auckland region was extensive, and many people lost their homes. Had the conservation estate forest in the ranges not been there, it would have been much worse.[1]
Scion research on water use by forest plantations shows that radiata pine life processes use an average of 37% of rainfall annually. What the trees absorb but don’t use is then released back into the atmosphere through evapotranspiration. Further, the research found that due to the increased porosity of forested soils compared to pastureland and clear-felled land, an average of 32% of annual rainfall on exotic forests ends up stored as groundwater at 10 metres depth. Only 31% of annual rainfall that lands on exotic pine forests reaches streams. During dry periods, the forest slowly releases water back into the soil, and in winter, the forest regulates runoff, providing water downstream throughout the year.[2]
Exotic pine forests are less complex than native forests, and the tree girth of native trees tends to be greater than mature radiata pine, so the data for a native forest is likely to demonstrate a greater ability to store and regulate water runoff into streams.
While Scion research has provided definitive numbers for how pine forests slow water down, mana whenua have used mātauranga to come to the same conclusion in native forests.
“The priority is to get the protection values back because it is a waste of time trying to save the kiwi, if the kiwi’s home is falling to pieces.” Graeme Atkins (Ngati Porou, Rongomaiwahine) in Think Like a Forest.[3]
Downstream, slowing water down, relies on marshy flood plains and swamps. These are undervalued tracts of land and should be prized for their ecological value and flood mitigation ability.
Since 2021, the Department of Conservation (DOC) has been working on reclassifying its stewardship land as either valuable or not. Around 30% (2.7 million hectares – approximately 4.5 times the land area of Wairarapa) of DOC land is stewardship land, including land gifted to DOC or purchased by the Nature Heritage Fund. As DOC states: “Many of these areas are home to threatened species and high-priority ecosystems.”[4]
This is important work; however, placing only high-priority ecosystem or threatened species lenses on the land precludes consideration of the role that stewardship land might take in protecting the land and communities downstream of it by slowing water down.
Point 3: Biodiversity concerns.
Many indigenous species in New Zealand are endemic. 2023 data provided by DOC and reported by Stats NZ, categorised many of our indigenous species as threatened with extinction or are at risk of becoming threatened. (As assessed under the New Zealand Threat Classification System.) 94% of reptiles, 82% of birds, 80% of bats (4 out of 5 species, including our two endemic species), 76% of freshwater fish, 75% of frogs (three out of four species), and alarmingly 46% of vascular plants. All with a declining population trend.[5]
Understanding the conservation status of indigenous species provides vital information for decision-making regarding conservation and kaitiaki activities, but many of our indigenous species have been categorised as data deficient, including over half of the hornworts and liverworts, two ancient taxa of plants that make up substantial forest floor biomass in healthy forests.[5]
According to Manaaki Whenua | Landcare Research, there are 22,000 arthropod species described in New Zealand, approximately 80% of which are endemic, and of which adequate scientific descriptions exist for less than 20%. New species are regularly
identified during systematic studies, and to quote Manaaki Whenua | Landcare Research, at least 22,000 further arthropod species are still waiting to be discovered.[6]
Globally, the main reason for species decline is habitat loss. Children in schools across New Zealand are taught that a key feature of food webs is complexity. The more complex a food web, the greater the resilience of the ecosystem. This means leaving the producers of the ecosystems – the native plants in situ and in sufficient quantity to support the invertebrate life dependent on them.
New Zealand has many unique ecosystems, and experience has shown that some of our unique species are only found in a single location. Consider, for a moment, the Mount Percy daisy (Olearia gardneri). Considered functionally extinct in the wild, it is an example of a plant endemic to the Eastern Wairarapa, with only a very small population existing in this specific area.
The more famous endemic invertebrate species with a highly specialised habitat and limited range is Powelliphanta augusta, a large, carnivorous snail. It was only discovered in 2005 on a few hectares on the northern edge of the Stockton Plateau, when most of its habitat had already been mined for coal.[7]
Over 80% of New Zealand’s species are found nowhere else in the world (endemic). They are part of our identity and our culture. Retaining a diversity of species and habitats provides for more resilient ecosystems. Our primary production systems rely on a few species and are vulnerable to climate change and introduced pests. Maintaining biodiversity is an insurance policy for the future.[8]
It is not yet clear how our biodiversity will be protected. Selling or leasing conservation estate because it has short-term high value for extractive industries, without fully considering the biodiversity implications, is potentially committing range-limited, or as yet unidentified species of plants and invertebrates to the extinction list. This cannot possibly result in the “better conservation outcome” the Beehive promised.
Point 4: Te Tiriti o Waitangi concerns
While SWI acknowledges the announcement that Section four of the Conservation Act has been removed from the list of 23 Acts where the Tiriti content is being reviewed, is this because the Conservation Act Amendment Bill was already being drafted when the list was released?
The cultural value of the conservation estate should not be discounted.
Point 5: The National-led coalition Government only manages the land for all New Zealanders; they do not own it.
It is not this Government’s to sell. There should not be any decisions made without public consultation, and if the ‘nays’ outweigh the ‘yahs’, then ‘no’ should mean ‘no’.
The release of the discussion document: “Modernising conservation land management” on November 15th, 2024, proposes to streamline concessions and planning processes and enable more flexibility around land exchange and disposals. It is the second half of that sentence that is so worrisome.
This coalition Government has demonstrated its intent to sell land of high conservation value, and to understand why the current coalition Government wants to amend the Conservation Act, we need to go back to 2017. According to the “Modernising conservation land management” discussion document released on 15th November 2024, the push to change to the Conservation Act 1987 started with situations like the Ruataniwha water storage scheme. Under current legislation, conservation land can only be sold if it is designated a stewardship area. To allow the scheme to progress, the conservation park status of the land was to be revoked and the land redesignated a stewardship area. However, the Supreme Court ruled that “revocation under s18(7) is permitted only where the conservation values in the subject land no longer warrant continued special protection.” (2017).[10]
By making changes to the Conservation Act and the Resource Management Act 1991, the Ruataniwha Water Storage Scheme will be revived as the Tukituki Water Security Project.[11]
Selling our backyard, potentially to overseas investors - including big oil and mining - without our consent is not OK. Forest & Bird chief executive, Nicola Toki, describes this Government’s treatment of conservation land as “less like policy and more like an international online auction of the very places that define who we are.”[12]
Point 6: Decisions to dispose of land or rights given on multi-decade contracts are irreversible for generations to come.
This Bill has the potential to affect how public land is managed for more than one generation to come. Because the decision is so important and the impact of any changes so far-reaching, in terms of time and in terms of the value New Zealanders place on the conservation estate, it is essential that the public and those with relevant expertise are not left out of this debate.
Looking at several actions this coalition Government has proposed or completed since 2024, it is clear that this Government is prepared to push through policy without sufficient public and expert scrutiny and input.
In some cases, no public consultation has been included, while in others, the speed and volume of changes have made it difficult for the public to keep up and have their say. For instance, while New Zealanders were seriously and rightly distracted by protesting and writing submissions on the Treaty Principles Bill, the National-led Government released the two discussion documents on conservation land reforms (15th November, 2024). And two more very significant Bills were proposed and fast-tracked through the House.
October 2024: Chris Bishop presented the Resource Management (Freshwater and Other Matters) Amendment Bill, implementing a one-stop-shop fast-track consenting regime.
November 2024: David Saymour released the Regulatory Standards Bill discussion document. A Bill that places private property as paramount, removes protection of Māori rights, and allows for corporations to sue the Government for regulations that protect Indigenous rights that prevent the corporation from making maximum profit from their property.
November 2024: Department of Conservation released the “Modernising conservation land management” discussion document, with public submissions open until February 2025.
The timing of the Treaty Principles Bill and the Regulatory Standards Bill, leading into the busy Christmas and summer holidays, limited public responses to this document. A document that indicated the Government’s intent to sell conservation land, regardless of conservation classification.
March - April 2025: Local Water Done Well submissions on local government discussion documents again rightly distracted those who care about the management of water in our communities. The question arises again - how can local government do water well, if the land the water falls onto is sold to the highest bidder?
May 2025, Wildlife (Authorisations) Amendment Act 2025, is passed, restoring the ability to authorise the incidental killing of protected wildlife during otherwise lawful activities, such as construction, provided that the overall effect of the activity protects the species.
May 2025: Action for Nature – the draft DOC strategic plan 2025 – 2030 is released for public consultation.
May 2025: Regulatory Standards Bill passes its first reading under urgency. What was the need for urgency with the reading of this contentious Bill? Were New Zealanders once again being distracted away from preparations to sell conservation land, or does this Act need to be in place before the Conservation Amendment Act to ensure that, regardless of public protest, Environment Court rulings, and clause four of the Conservation Act, land sales can be pushed through?
Mid-July 2025 Local Government Elections candidate electioneering begins.
August 2025, the Government announced that it is drafting the Conservation Acts (Land Management) Amendment Bill, and has indicated that the Bill will be introduced to parliament by the close of 2025.
The purpose of the Bill is to change the law to make the sale of conservation land, regardless of conservation status, possible. To quote the “Modernising conservation land management” discussion document, “If settings remained unchanged, the Government would continue to be unable to exchange conservation land outside of the Fast-track process even in circumstances where a clear conservation benefit would be gained.” (pg 59).
All of these legislation changes make clear the wording of “Action for Nature”, the proposed DOC Strategic Plan (2025-2030), which heavily emphasised commercial partnerships to pay for DOC activities. What was missing from the strategic plan was an explanation that these commercial partnerships are not partnerships at all. They are leases and sales, largely to overseas mining companies, but with a fair smattering of farming on the flat land. These companies will not pay any heed to the endemic and often endangered species found on the land, some of which haven’t even been formally identified yet.
To be clear: The Government doesn’t own the land, a fact highlighted in the “Modernising conservation land management” discussion document; “The Crown is both a land manager and a regulator.” (pg:58). The Government manages it for the people of New Zealand, who pay taxes to make that management happen.
Our collective silence is not consent. It is not knowing what the Government is doing.
Nga mihi
Erica Jar
Secretary, Sustainable Wairarapa Inc. (On behalf.)
References:
1. Scion. (2023). Forest sponges: New research reveals how forests absorb water in extreme weather. Scion press release. https://www.scionresearch.com/news-and-events/news/2023- news-and-media-releases/forest-sponges-new-research-reveals-how-forests-absorb-water-in extreme-weather-events
2. Meason D. (N.D.) Forest water release. Scion. https://www.scionresearch.com/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/119416/Forest-Water-Release.pdf
3. Recloaking Papatūānuku. (2025) Think Like a Forest. https://www.youtube.com/live/Q9cg5da47SE
4. Department of Conservation. (2025). Stewardship land reclassification. https://www.doc.govt.nz/about-us/our-role/managing-conservation/stewardship-land/
5. StatsNZ Tatauranga Aotearoa. (2023). Extinction threat to indigenous species. https://www.stats.govt.nz/indicators/extinction-threat-to-indigenous-species/
6. Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research. (N.D.). Invertebrate systematics. https://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/discover-our-research/restoring-ecosystems/plants invertebrates-fungi-and-bacteria/invertebrate-systematics
7. Department of Conservation (N.D.). Powelliphanta snail. https://www.doc.govt.nz/nature/native animals/invertebrates/powelliphanta-snails/
8. Crisp P., Bunny T., and Perrie A. (2014) Our indigenous species in the Ruamāhanga Whaitua summary. To assist the Ruamāhanga Whaitua Committee to understand the indigenous biodiversity in the whaitua. Greater Wellington Regional Council. https://www.gw.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/biodiversitysummary-ruamahangawhaitua.pdf
9. Supreme Court of New Zealand Te Kōti Mana Nui (2017). Hawke’s Bay Regional Investment Co Ltd v Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Inc and Minister of Conservation (Sc 106/2016) [2017] NZSC 106 | Minister of Conservation v Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Inc and Hawke’s Bay Regional Investment Co Ltd (Sc 107/2016). Press Release. www.courtsofnz.govt.nz/assets/cases/2017/MR-2017-NZSC-106.pdf
10. Bhamidipati S. (2024). Scrapped Hawke's Bay dam project may be revived under fast-track Bill. RNZ. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/530087/scrapped-hawke-s-bay-dam-project-may be-revived-under-fast-track-bill
11. RNZ. (2025) Government conservation changes spark backlash over land protections. RNZ. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/govts-conservation-changes-spark-backlash-over-land protections/EPZAOL5TCVH2JJAK6UUG6LHLFM/
12. Gibson E. (2025). Fossil fuel advocate who slammed clean energy grants joins energy agency board. RNZ. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/environment/543516/fossil-fuel-advocate-who slammed-clean-energy-grants-joins-energy-agency-board