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Biodiversity

Initiatives to protect New Zealand's biodiversity

Fiordland Marine Guardians

Roles in the Fiordland Marine Area

National Priority 1 – Regional and District/City council maps

National Priority 1 uses Land Environments of New Zealand (LENZ), the Land Cover Database (LCDB) and a national database of land protection status to identify what type of vegetation occurs in each land environment and the broad pattern of protection.

LENZ is a national environment-based classification of ecosystems mapped across New Zealand’s landscape. LENZ is a surrogate for the likely past (pre-human) pattern of terrestrial ecosystems and their associated biodiversity.

The maps of National Priority 1 have been prepared at LENZ Level 4 (i.e. 500 land environments) and show land environments with 20% or less remaining indigenous vegetation from a New Zealand wide perspective – yellow shading on the maps.

LCDB uses satellite imagery to classify and map New Zealand’s existing land cover, such as urban areas, wetlands and native forest.

The Land Cover Database 2 (i.e. satellite images gathered in 2001/02) has been overlaid on the LENZ land environments to show the areas of remaining indigenous vegetation within the land environments – green shading on the maps.

The land protection layer shows areas that are public conservation land, in QEII covenants and in regional parks administered by Auckland and Wellington Regional Councils. These areas are overlaid on the LCDB layer to indicate the areas of remaining indigenous vegetation that are “formally protected” – blue shading on the maps.

These layers have been used to calculate the area (in hectares) of the remaining indigenous vegetation in Priority 1 land environments that is not formally protected and this is shown in the tables below.

Important information about the maps

These maps do not show all biodiversity that fall within council’s responsibilities under the Resource Management Act. They do not identify all indigenous biodiversity that is to be maintained by councils under sections 30 and 31 or identify all significant indigenous vegetation and significant habitats of indigenous fauna under section 6(c) of the Resource Management Act. Rather, from a national level, the maps identify our most rare and threatened environments and ecosystems across the whole of New Zealand. This national level information is only part of the biodiversity picture that is needed to inform resource management decisions at the regional and local level.

The maps depict National Priority 1 and not specifically the ecosystems and habitats that are identified in National Priorities 2, 3 and 4.

The use of national classification systems and databases to generate these maps means that they have limitations at the local and property scales. They provide a picture of the national context but are not designed to provide fine scale details.

The areas of remaining indigenous vegetation are based on 2001/02 satellite imagery. Also, the land protection layer does not show land that is protected through other means such as through regional and local council initiatives or by landowners themselves.

For the reasons outlined above, the maps may not always give a completely accurate picture of what you will find on the ground. They should not be used as a substitute for on the ground survey of the indigenous biodiversity of a particular location. More information about these classification systems and databases and their limitations is contained in:

• Protecting our Places - Information about the national priorities for protecting rare and threatened native biodiversity on private land

The Threatened Environment Classification (developed by Landcare Research) is another way to integrate LENZ, LCDB and data about land protection status to identify depleted and poorly protected ecosystems. The two highest threat categories in the classification (acutely and chronically threatened) are the same land environments identified in National Priority 1.

More information about the Threatened Environment Classification can be found on the Bio-community website.

Maps of National Priority 1

For print quality, high resolution images, please send your request to rmainfo@mfe.govt.nz

Note: the "Area" column refers to area of remaining indigenous vegetation in Priority 1 land environments that is not formally protected. Priority 1 land environments are defined nationally at LENZ Level IV and have 20% or less remaining indigenous cover.

Note: District councils that fall within more than one region have been assigned to one region in this list. The Chatham Islands Council is not included because the classification system and databases are not available for the Islands. The regional total includes all cities/districts wholly or partially within the region – this may be different to the sum of the city/district totals.

The source of the area data is : Walker S, Price R, Rutledge D. 2004. New Zealand’s Remaining Indigenous Cover: Recent changes and biodiversity protection needs. Unpublished report. (Note that this report will be published by the Department of Conservation)

Last updated: 19 December 2007