Our Land
Our ambition is for New Zealanders to use our land, soil and water resources wisely.
Finding a healthy balance with our land and ecosystems is critical to ensuring our future prosperity. We can protect the health of our land, freshwater and soils even as we use them to thrive and grow as a nation.
Demand for information and new tools to support effective management of land resources in New Zealand is urgent and growing. Some of our most important natural resources have been over-allocated or have reached critical environmental thresholds because of unsustainable land-use practices.
To enhance the utilisation of the land and soil resources, New Zealand needs improved knowledge of the inherent variability and change over time, and across catchments and landscapes (natural, managed and urban); how the land responds to human pressures; potential limits to land-use intensification and other development; and what drives natural resource management decisions. New and improved tools are required to meet these challenges and support sustainable land management and resource allocation. This will improve the primary sector’s economic and environmental performance, and support the provision of wider ecosystem services.