Protecting indigenous habitats

Protecting indigenous habitats and their biological diversity by: a) maintaining and enhancing the net area of remaining indigenous forests and enhancing the ecological integrity of other remaining indigenous ecosystems; and b) promoting the conservation and sustainable management of biological diversity so that the quality of indigenous and productive ecosystems is maintained or enhanced.

Indigenous vegetation has been defined as that vegetation which evolved to a large extent within a country, and hence existed here before the first human settlement.

Indigenous species are mainly conserved through in situ conservation. Sites range from national parks and reserves and local government parks and reserves, through to sites of remnant vegetation on private land, often with no formal protection.

During the 1980s and early 1990s, New Zealand protected significant areas of indigenous forest, or required its sustainable management. More effective protection is now possible for wetlands and many other lowland habitats under the provisions of the Resource Management Act.