Conservation covenants (Reserves Act 1977)

This guide aims to encourage local authority staff to consider using conservation covenants as a tool to protect conservation values. There are two objectives. Firstly, to assist local authority staff to assess the various options available for the conservation and management of natural habitats, particularly waterways and wetlands, and secondly, to guide staff through the process of establishing a conservation covenant under the Reserves Act (1977).

Conservation covenants provide opportunities to protect and restore natural ecosystems. The focus of this guide is waterway and wetland protection on private land. The guide can also be used to establish covenants for the protection of other types of ecosystems and habitats.

Conservation covenants under the Reserves Act (1977) (referred to as "conservation covenants" in this guide) provide opportunities for local authorities to be involved in the management of private land for conservation purposes. Conservation covenants have been used by the Department of Conservation over the years, but few local authorities have embraced covenanting as a tool. For this reason the Ministry for the Environment's Sustainable Management Fund assisted the preparation of this guide.

the use of alternative methods to achieve the purposes of the Act (Section 32, 1(a),(ii)). Covenants are one such method of managing New Zealand's natural ecosystems. Under Section 77 of Reserves Act (1977) a local authority or the Crown can establish a conservation covenant to protect habitats and ecosystems on private land. Covenants are a partnership agreement between a landowner or lessee of Crown land, and the Crown or a local authority.
The guide provides information that will assist users to:

• determine conservation objectives
• develop a management statement or plan for the conservation covenant
• decide what and how to monitor
• assess likely costs
• understand legal issues, and obtain assistance and resources.

Two case studies of conservation covenant agreements in Christchurch City are presented as examples of the process.

Conservation Covenants under Section 77 of the Reserves Act (1977)

"The Minister, any local authority, or any other body approved by the Minister if satisfied that any private land or any Crown land held under Crown lease should be managed so as to preserve the natural environment, or landscape amenity, or wildlife or freshwater-life or marine-life habitat, or historical value, and that the particular purpose or purposes can be achieved without acquiring the ownership of the land, or, as the case may be, of the lessee's interest in the land, for a reserve, may treat and agree with the owner or lessee for a covenant to provide for the management of that land in a manner that will achieve the particular purpose or purposes of conservation"