Table 12.5: Native land cover by land environment, and legally protected native land cover, 2006, within each land environment

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Land environment	Total area (hectares) of land environment	Percentage of total land area (%)	Area (hectares) of land environment with native land cover	Percentage of land environment with native land cover (%)	Area (hectares) of native land cover with legal protection	Percentage of native land cover with legal protection (%)
A – Northern lowlands	1,849,768	7.05	337,759	18.26	84,754	25.09
B – Central dry lowlands	691,023	2.64	70,437	10.19	6,526	9.26
C – Western and southern North Island lowlands	636,039	2.43	27,014	4.25	5,783	21.41
D – Northern hill country	2,100,703	8.01	927,561	44.15	469,804	50.65
E – Central dry foothills	1,323,134	5.05	591,154	44.68	229,675	38.85
F – Central hill country and Volcanic Plateau	5,241,257	19.99	1,901,125	36.27	999,483	52.57
G – Northern recent soils	336,969	1.28	56,205	16.68	18,274	32.51
H – Central sandy recent soils	135,305	0.52	47,804	35.33	31,187	65.24
I – Central poorly drained soils	120,999	0.46	6,159	5.09	2,390	38.80
J – Central well-drained recent soils	292,689	1.12	20,779	7.10	3,277	15.77
K – Central upland recent soils	160,758	0.61	63,831	39.71	19,936	31.23
L – Southern lowlands	801,869	3.06	104,945	13.09	59,356	56.56
M – Western South Island recent soils	220,444	0.84	121,532	55.13	98,584	81.12
N – Eastern South Island plains	2,044,301	7.80	163,565	8.00	8,780	5.37
O – Western South Island foothills and Stewart Island	1,412,650	5.39	1,279,893	90.60	1,161,159	90.72
P – Central mountains	3,247,880	12.39	3,029,280	93.27	2,313,193	76.36
Q – Southeastern hill country and mountains	3,276,038	12.49	1,780,287	54.34	622,273	34.95
R – Southern Alps	1,929,739	7.36	1,927,944	99.91	1,816,279	94.21
S – Ultramafic soils	33,485	0.13	32,513	97.10	31,059	95.53
T – Permanent snow and ice	157,144	0.60	157,128	99.99	153,603	97.76
Unspecified	211,114	0.81	116,986	55.41	29,486	25.20
Total	26,223,310	100.00	12,763,904	48.67	8,164,862	63.97

Notes:

(1) This report uses a total land area for New Zealand derived from the Land Environments of New Zealand classification tool. It results in a smaller total land area than that derived by other means.

(2) Ultramafic soils are derived from molten rock (magma) that are rich in iron and magnesium and have a low silica content.

Data source: Landcare Research.

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