Change in the high country: Environmental stewardship and tenure review

From the Commissioner's overview

The high country of the South Island is a special place. As a teenager I kayaked on Lake Heron, and can still recall the silence. Many New Zealanders feel a similarly strong emotional pull from those great mountain valleys and basins.

For many decades most of the high country has been leased by the Crown to farmers who have chiefly run merino sheep on the land. Over recent years, many of these leases have been terminated in the process called ‘tenure review’. In almost all cases, this has resulted in a splitting of the leased land into productive land owned by the former lessee, and conservation land still owned by the Crown but managed by the Department of Conservation. 

An investigation into the outcomes and process of high country tenure review has resulted in this independent report to Parliament. Although many aspects of tenure review are controversial, the report is focused on environmental issues, not on legal and financial issues. The last section contains several recommendations to Ministers.