Project overview
In 2020 EDS led a comprehensive review of landscape protection in Aotearoa New Zealand and identified ways to better protect our distinctive natural and cultural landscapes for future generations.
EDS’s Landscape Protection Project investigated why the landscape management system in Aotearoa New Zealand was failing and how it could be strengthened.
The work explored how existing legislative and policy tools could be more effectively deployed to protect important natural landscapes and how a new ‘protected landscapes’ model could be adopted to achieve better landscape protection.
Findings were published in five case studies and a final synthesis report. The case studies were on:
- Te Manahuna-Mackenzie Basin
- Hauraki Gulf islands (Waiheke Island, Aotea/Great Barrier Island and Rākino Island)
- Waitākere Ranges
- Te Pātaka o Rākaihautu Banks Peninsula
- Potential linkages between tourism and landscape protection.
The final synthesis report, Caring for the Landscapes of Aotearoa New Zealand (February 2021), drew together key findings and set out a suite of comprehensive recommendations for how the resource management system could be better configured to provide more robust landscape protection.
We thank the Department of Conservation and Land Information New Zealand for their support for this project. We would also like to acknowledge the additional supporters of the case studies: Environment Canterbury (Te Pātaka o Rākaihautū Banks Peninsula case study); Auckland Council (Hauraki Gulf Islands case study); Waitākere Ranges Protection Society and Foundation North (Waitākere Ranges case study) and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and the Tourism Industry New Zealand Trust (Tourism and Landscape Protection case study).
Please contact Raewyn Peart at raewyn@eds.org.nz for further information.
