Government to reform ‘loosey goosey’ conservation law, with fees for international visitors

Thursday, 7 May 2026

The Government is forging ahead with changes to conservation land management, in what Minister Tama Potaka describes as “the most significant reform of conservation legislation in nearly 40 years”.

“Right now, the conservation system is 40 years old,” he said. “It's very slow to turn and get decisions made. There's a lot of out of date planning documents, and it's a bit loosey goosey.”

Through an amendment bill, announced today, the Government will provide clearer rules for granting concessions, develop a new document - a National Conservation Policy Statement - to manage all conservation land (replacing existing, separate management plans for conservation land and national parks) and introduce access fees for international visitors.

Concessions are needed for anyone wanting to run businesses, build structures or host events on conservation land.

“We are trying to reduce the ambiguity, get more certainty for players in the system,” Potaka said. “So … 30 to 40% of applications under the proposed system, they won’t need a concession because they’ll be pre-approved or exempted.”

He said taking water samples for scientific research could be an example of a pre-approved activity.

“That will free up a lot of time for DOC’s decision makers and staffers to actually work on the more complex concession applications,” Potaka said.

For activities that still need a concession, the process will be clarified in a bid to speed things up. That will include implementing timeframes for iwi consultation.

This bill will also enable DOC to introduce access charges for international visitors at “a small number of highly visited sites”.

Potaka said the sites could include the likes of Milford Sound, Aoraki Mount Cook, the Hooker Valley track, Cathedral Cove, and the Tongaro Alpine Crossing. While the details are yet to be worked out, it could be implemented via a ticket box system or an on-site concessionaire, he said.

As for the price, “we did the modelling around $20 to $40, maybe $50 in some places, and that’s not out of step with comparable offerings around the Pacific,” he said.

Another change - which proved unpopular when consulted on last year - will make it easier to exchange or dispose of public conservation land.

Currently, only reserve land or stewardship land can be disposed of and only public conservation land that is of “no or very low” conservation value can be exchanged.

Reserve land is land preserved and managed for the public enjoyment, but not for conservation purposes. Stewardship land is public conservation land that has not yet been classified.

A majority of respondents during last year’s consultation opposed removing the “no or very low” conservation value test for exchanges, or making it easier for the Government to dispose of land.

But Potaka confirmed they are going ahead with changes anyway.

“Right now conservation land can be sold or exchanged, but it’s quite hard to do that,” he said. “What we’re saying is that there needs to be far more certainty and simpler arrangements if something does not suit conservation and has low or no conservation value. We should be able to just sell that off and use that money to reinvest in conservation.”

Under the bill, land exchanges would be possible where the land received has a higher conservation value than the land given away. Land disposals will be possible where the land is deemed not important for the conservation of threatened species or ecosystems, and the Director General of Conservation recommends it.

But any land that has been accorded the highest conservation value - approximately 40% of public conservation land - will not be eligible for exchange or disposal.

The conservation spokespeople from both Labour and the Greens have condemned this move.

“We're very concerned that National is pushing ahead with plans to flog off public conservation land, ignoring the wishes of New Zealanders,” Labour’s Priyanca Radhakrishnan said. “This law change allows the government to privatise land with high conservation value that currently belong to all New Zealanders and should be protected.”

“The Conservation Act is not meant to be used to prop up National's failing economic strategy.”

Green Party spokesperson Marama Davidson accused the Government of “bringing in the bulldozers”.

“Over half of New Zealand conservation land will be eligible for land exchange and disposal under the new settings. This is a betrayal for future generations who will no longer have access to these significant environments,” she said.

Potaka noted certain areas of the conservation estate have no conservation value - like “sections in between houses with a bit of grass and maybe a fence or two”.

“I think there's an observation that we're going to go sell off half the DOC lands, but that's not the case,” he said. “You just have to have flexibility in the legislation where you have a section in the middle of houses in Reefton.”