Find out what concession you will need and how to apply for one below.

Pre-application advice

We’ll help you to:

• Understand the concession you will need to apply for.
• Navigate our statutory planning documents, so you can consider whether the activity you wish to undertake is consistent with them.
• Understand DOC’s responsibility to give effect to the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi, which requires consultation with Treaty Partners on most applications. If you wish, DOC can help you contact the local iwi, hapū, and whānau to assess whether your proposed activity will have any cultural effects. Often this consultation can enhance the activity you are considering.

Pre-application advice

Type of concession

There is only one type of concession you are likely to need to graze your animals on public conservation land: Longer term concession – for grazing required in an area for a period of longer than three months.

Apply for your concession

• Fill in the applicant information form 1a – notified or non-notified process (PDF, 196K) or (Word, 372K).
• Fill in the concession application form 2a (grazing) (PDF, 132K) or (Word, 351K).
• Email the forms along with the relevant documents requested to permissions@doc.govt.nz.

Identify the name and status of the public conservation land you wish to use by checking DOC maps.

If your application is approved we will send you a contract which you must sign and return before proceeding with your activity.

Timeframe

If your proposed activity has to be notified to the public because there are likely to be significant environmental effects over the duration of your activity, this will impact your application processing time.

How long it takes to process an application

Fees

We charge an application processing fee based on the time required to process your application and staff hourly charge-out rates. Complex applications cost more as they take longer to process.

After you apply, we will assign your application to a processing category that reflects its complexity. Each category has a minimum processing fee.

Learn more about processing categories and minimum fees

If you seek pre-application advice, we can tell you the category and minimum processing fee that will most likely apply to your application. We will confirm your minimum processing fee once your application is accepted and assigned to a processing category. If we expect your processing fee to exceed the minimum fee, we will give you a non-binding fee estimate before we start work.

We will usually invoice your fee after processing is complete. If you withdraw your application, you will be charged for any work already done.

If your application is approved, ongoing permission fees may apply.