Protect Aotearoa New Zealand’s Public Conservation Land 

We call on New Zealand’s government to make sustainable changes to the Conservation Amendment Bill 2026 to secure the protection of Aotearoa New Zealand’s public conservation land and keep environmental protection as a top priority. 

Our concern is that the bill may diminish the protection of public conservation land, by allowing significant consideration of large commercial and economic interests to influence decisions about how conservation land is managed. We believe that the primary objective of public conservation land is to protect our country's natural environment, native animals and trees and ecosystems to sustain future generations.

We call government to:

• Ensure that conservation and environment remain the utmost priority when decisions are made regarding public conservation land.
  Prevent commercial interests from being a priority over the protection of native species and ecosystems.
• Require clear environmental assessments before activities that may damage the environment and land conservation be approved before further action.
• Ensure that any changes made to conservation legislation do not reduce the level of environmental protection that is currently provided. 
• Aotearoa New Zealand’s public land conservation land is shared toanaga. It provides habits for native and threatened species, supports ecosystems, supports recreation and tourism, and has cultural significance. Once ecosystems are heavily damaged or native species are lost, they cannot always be restored. 

We therefore urge the New Zealand government to protect Aotearoa New Zealand’s land public conservation and to ensure that short term economic or commercial interests do not take priority over long standing wellbeing of our environment for future generations.