The Government recently announced it was ending tenure review – the process by which Crown pastoral lease land (high country stations like Alphaburn and Glendhu Station) has been divided up, with some areas privatised and other areas returned to full Crown ownership.
What is tenure review?
Tenure review sometimes helped create new conservation parks, but more frequently led to poor outcomes for our natural environment. This was because land returned to the Crown tended to be less threatened high altitude areas with low value for farming, while privatised land often included highly-threatened lowland areas.
These are the areas where so much of the unique biodiversity, iconic landscapes and recreational opportunities of the high country have already been lost. This includes tussock grasslands, herbfields, mossfields, and shrublands, as well as animals including native lizards, birds and invertebrates such as the incredible robust grasshopper.
Privatising these areas has enabled development that has destroyed large areas of sensitive dryland habitat and turned the iconic tussock landscapes of the Mackenzie Country and parts of Central Otago into a patchwork of alien green crop circles for dairy conversions, or subdivisions.
The Government is seeking your input on how to manage Crown pastoral leases now that tenure review is ending.
Overall, the end of tenure review is great news, but it requires careful consideration of how to look after the Crown pastoral lease land – which makes up around five percent of the total area of New Zealand – that will now remain pastoral lease for the long term. These pastoral leases have been managed poorly by Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) in the past. Consents have been granted for activities like burning, ploughing and irrigation or for commercial recreation like ski fields, which also destroy native habitat and impact on water quality in highland streams and lakes.
The Government has released a discussion paper about how this land will be better looked after in future, and we think they are on the right track. However, there are some aspects that need to be improved, and some gaps that need to be filled, to stop the ongoing loss of high country’s iconic values.
Please take the time to have your say on the consultation on enduring stewardship of Crown pastoral land through our quick submission form below. Your submission will carry more weight if you add some of your own words..