Protected Areas Network – New Zealand (PAN-NZ)
The PAN-NZ database contains information on legally protected areas (Crown Conservation Estate, Regional parks and covenents) for the three main islands of New Zealand (North, South, and Stewart) and all the inshore islands.
Background
The New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy established a framework for action for the sustainable conservation and management of New Zealand’s biodiversity. Goal 3 of the Strategy aims to help halt the decline of indigenous biodiversity by maintaining and restoring a full range of remaining natural habitats and ecosystems to a healthy functioning state, enhancing critically scarce habitats, sustaining modified ecosystems in production and urban environments, and maintaining and restoring viable populations of all indigenous species and subspecies across their natural range and maintaining their genetic diversity.
Setting aside places where native ecosystems, habitats, and species can function and evolve with little interference or disturbance is a key mechanism for contributing to Goal 3 of the Biodiversity Strategy. Protected areas, usually legally protected areas such as parks or reserves, establish areas – either large or small – where native species and ecosystems remain dominant.
Within New Zealand formally protected areas include the Crown Conservation Estate, regional parks, and a range of covenant schemes: Nga Whenua Rahui, Nature Heritage Fund, Queen Elizabeth II National Trust, or local council reserves via the Reserves Act.
The PAN-NZ Database can be used by itself to report on the status of protected areas or in combination with other databases to inform a range of conservation management issues.
Coverage
The PAN-NZ database contains information on the following legally protected areas for the three main islands of New Zealand (North, South, and Stewart) and all the inshore islands:
- Crown Conservation Estate (managed by the Department of Conservation)
- Regional parks
- Covenants
The database currently does not include information on the seven offshore island groups (Auckland, Antipodes, Bounty, Campbell, Chatham, Kermdecs, Snares) or on legally protected marine areas, i.e. marine reserves.
Availability
Landcare Research unofficially maintains and periodically updates the PAN-NZ database to support the range of research and conservation management applications. Because of certain use restrictions, we cannot supply the full PAN-NZ database to third parties. However, we recognise that access to and use of such information would support a range of worthwhile conservation activities. As part of the TFBIS PAN-NZ Metadata survey project, we are working with key central government agencies to identify and institute a better pathway for the compilation, dissemination, and reporting of the information contained in the PAN-NZ database.