Background

This measure relates to indicator 1.6.1 – Ecosystem representation and protection status.

The Land Environments of New Zealand (LENZ) classification is a framework for conservation management in Aotearoa New Zealand that looks at the natural relationship between the environment and species distributions. LENZ provides a spatial framework for surrogate indigenous ecosystems. DOC monitors the proportion of LENZ classes that are legally protected and under indigenous cover to quantify changes in Aotearoa New Zealand’s landscape and to assess how well indigenous biodiversity is being protected.

Less than 1% of the lowland areas in western, central and southern North Island and eastern South Island are protected and under indigenous cover.

What did we measure?

Three national datasets were used to assess the overall changes in Aotearoa New Zealand’s native vegetation by environment type. The Land Cover Database (LCDB) v5.0 was used to categorise indigenous versus modified vegetation for Aotearoa New Zealand as a whole, using land cover information from 2018; the LENZ database was used to classify the environment types; and a legal protection dataset was used to calculate the proportion of legally protected areas, including all DOC-managed land, Ngā Whenua Rāhui and Queen Elizabeth II National Trust (QEII) covenants, as at June 2024.

What did we find?

• Less than 10% of lowland areas in the North Island and eastern South Island are currently protected (Table 1).
• Nationally, more than 30% of land is protected. However, protection is uneven and less than 20% of remaining indigenous cover is protected in 208 of 500 LENZ Level IV units (Table 1).
• There was an increase in protection on most LENZ Level I units between 2012 and 2024 (Figure 1).
• The overall area of indigenous cover declined between 2012 and 2018, with small losses over most LENZ Level I units (Figure 1).

Table

Table 1: Percent of each environmental unit under indigenous vegetation (2018 data) and legal protection (2024 data)

	LENZ Level I unit	Total area (ha)	Percent indigenous	Percent protected	Percent in indigenous cover and protected	Number of Level IV units with <20% indigenous cover	Number of Level IV units with <20% indigenous cover protected
Northern & Central Lowlands & Hill Country	A. Northern lowlands	1,853,470	18.64%	5.55%	4.81%	20 of 33	19 of 33
	B. Central dry lowlands	691,629	10.35%	2.26%	1.22%	34 of 38	34 of 38
	C. Western and southern North Island lowlands	636,257	4.50%	1.26%	0.95%	15 of 19	11 of 19
	D. Northern hill country	2,103,297	45.02%	22.59%	22.06%	10 of 31	12 of 31
	E. Central dry foothills	1,323,344	45.13%	30.56%	22.25%	5 of 21	2 of 21
	F. Central hill country and volcanic plateau	5,245,896	36.71%	20.85%	20.10%	25 of 54	18 of 54
Northern & Central Recent Soils	G. Northern recent soils	338,879	17.14%	7.93%	5.25%	15 of 25	17 of 25
	H. Central sandy recent soils	135,380	35.53%	22.52%	21.27%	8 of 20	3 of 20
	I. Central poorly-drained recent soils	121,103	5.27%	3.03%	1.86%	14 of 19	13 of 19
	J. Central well-drained recent soils	293,515	7.17%	2.73%	1.08%	24 of 26	20 of 26
	K. Central upland recent soils	160,771	40.25%	30.68%	16.71%	4 of 22	5 of 22
Southern Lowlands	L. Southern lowlands	802,596	12.57%	8.38%	7.28%	16 of 26	10 of 26
	M. Western South Island recent soils	220,662	54.87%	51.20%	45.38%	0 of 15	0 of 15
	N. Eastern South Island plains	2,044,921	7.09%	1.42%	0.65%	34 of 38	33 of 38
Central Southern Hill Country & Mountains	O. Western South Island foothills and Stewart Island	1,415,937	90.29%	82.69%	81.90%	0 of 27	0 of 27
	P. Central mountains	3,248,187	93.43%	78.42%	77.09%	0 of 34	0 of 34
	Q. Southeastern hill country and mountains	3,277,187	51.75%	25.86%	24.00%	6 of 29	6 of 29
	R. Southern Alp	1,931,526	99.86%	96.12%	96.07%	0 of 16	0 of 16
	S. Ultramafic soils	33,513	97.18%	93.40%	92.87%	0 of 6	1 of 6
Nival	T. Permanent snow and ice	157,156	99.99%	99.05%	99.04%	0 of 1	0 of 1
	Total	26,246,647	48.49%	34.61%	33.12%	230 of 500	204 of 500

Note:
* Other is the NULL class in LENZ. These are predominantly in Rivers, Estuaries and Lakes.

Figures

Figure 1: Changes in the percentage of protection and indigenous cover of LENZ Level I units.

Data quality

This measure is classified as a national indicator and complies with the data quality guidelines used in New Zealand’s Environmental Reporting Series.

Glossary of terms

Land Environments of New Zealand (LENZ) is an environmental classification that is intended to underpin a range of conservation and resource management issues. Four levels of classification detail are available, containing 20, 100, 200, and 500 units, respectively.

LENZ Level I defines 20 environment units across New Zealand’s three main islands.

LENZ Level IV defines 500 environment units across New Zealand’s three main islands.

Additional resources

Leathwick, J., Wilson, G., Rutledge, D., Wardle, P., Morgan, F., Johnston, K., McLeod, M., 2003. Land Environments of New Zealand. David Bateman.

McGlone, M.S., McNutt, K., Richardson, S.J., Bellingham, P.J., Wright, E.F., 2020. Biodiversity monitoring, ecological integrity, and the design of the New Zealand biodiversity assessment framework. New Zealand Journal of Ecology 44, 3411.