Budget 2026 for DOC is made up of two components:

• Targeted new funding.
• Baseline savings.

Like other government agencies, DOC was required to deliver a baseline savings target in Budget 2026 as part of the Government’s fiscal strategy. The ongoing savings of $9.428 million per year (totalling $37.712 million over four years) have been implemented by scaling back or deferring lower-priority work across asset maintenance, digital modernisation, predator control, and policy activities.

Budget 2026 initiatives

DOC’s Budget 2026 baseline savings initiatives include: 

• An ongoing $1.865 million per year reduction by scaling back non-essential maintenance on visitor assets and scaling insurance on assets.
• An ongoing $5.093 million per year reduction by slowing the pace of DOC’s digital modernisation plan, focusing IT investment on core systems and deferring less-critical upgrades.
• An ongoing $1.870 million per year reduction by focusing the National Predator Control Programme on its highest-priority sites and deferring predator control operations at select lower-priority sites.
• An ongoing $0.600 million per year reduction by reducing policy capacity and deferring further stewardship land reclassification work.

DOC’s Budget 2026 targeted new funding initiative includes:

• An additional $9.786 million of funding over five years, and $1.047 million ongoing, to implement the Stafford v Attorney-General Resolution Agreement (including in tagged contingency).

DOC's 2026/27 departmental appropriations

DOC’s departmental output appropriations are decreasing by $9.512 million, from $716.645 million in 2025/26 to $707.133 million in 2026/27.

The decrease in 2026/27 appropriations is primarily driven by $9.428 million of Budget 2026 savings initiatives but also reflects the conclusion of the Jobs for Nature programme, a $10.444 million reduction, which is offset by a time-limited $10.578 million International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy baseline transfer from 2025/26.

DOC will continue to prioritise and deliver the best possible conservation outcomes for New Zealand within its available resources.
The following chart shows DOC’s departmental output appropriations in 2026/27:

Trend in DOC’s appropriations

Vote Conservation has two main components:

• Departmental spending, which includes DOC's operating and capital budget.
• Non-departmental spending, which DOC spends on behalf of the Crown, e.g. grants to community conservation funds and the protection of biodiversity on private and Māori land.

Chart notes:

• Appropriations pre-2026/27 are per Supplementary Estimates for each financial year.
• Appropriations from 2026/27 onwards are per Main Estimates 2025/26 and are subject to change pending future budgets and baseline adjustments.
• While further baseline reductions of 5% have been signalled for 2027/28 and 2028/29, these are not reflected in this graph, and will be reflected if / when these baseline reductions are confirmed in future budgets.
• Tagged contingency funding has been excluded.

The graph above shows how DOC’s departmental appropriations (including operating and capital) and non-departmental appropriations (including operating and capital) have changed over time.

The changes in departmental and non-departmental appropriations since 2018/19 have been driven by temporary funding increases from the Covid Recovery and Relief Funds received at Budget 2020 (primarily the Jobs for Nature programme), ongoing additional funding provided through Budget 2022, the establishment of the International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy in 2019/20 and increases provided through Budget 2025, and savings realised at Budgets 2024, 2025 and 2026.

Budget initiatives 2016 – 2026

The following initiatives were funded at each Budget (the dollar amounts refer to the first five years of total budget funding):