Conservation Law Reform - What Climbers Need to Know
17/6/2026
The Conservation Amendment Bill is currently in the process of becoming law. It has passed its first reading in Parliament and is now being reviewed by select committee. The public have the next two weeks, until the end of 2nd July, to make submissions to the select committee. You can read more about the bill and make a submission here.
Why does this matter to climbers and other users of alpine spaces for recreation? New Zealand Alpine Club is concerned about multiple aspects of the proposed law reform and we outline those reasons and why we think it is important to make a submission in the summary below.
What is affected?
Public Conservation Land (PCL) covers approximately 33% of our country's total land area, it includes national parks, wilderness areas, ecological areas, wildlife areas, conservation parks, stewardship land, and scenic, scientific or historic reserves.
People can usually visit and enjoy PCL for recreational activities such as climbing, although some activities may be restricted (or require a concession) to protect sensitive environments or cultural values. PCL plays a key role in protecting and preserving biodiversity, supporting tourism and recreation, protecting ecosystems and water quality, and helping New Zealand respond to climate and environmental challenges. PCL is an important drawcard for New Zealand, pulling in thousands of domestic and international tourists every year. Nature and conservation-related tourism is worth around NZ$3.4 billion annually to the economy.
What is changing?
If passed into law, the proposed bill would make major changes to how public conservation land is managed. Some of the changes to streamline and modernise decision-making processes are sensible. However, other changes are likely to have very damaging impacts on conservation. It is the biggest reform of conservation law in nearly 40 years.
The Government says the Bill will improve visitor experiences, support regional jobs, strengthen conservation outcomes, and create clearer processes for Treaty obligations and land management. However, Forest & Bird have issued an explainer after seeking legal advice on the changes and argue that the proposed changes weaken protections for PCL, reduce public oversight and engagement in decision making and make it easier for land exchanges, development, or commercial use and privatisation to occur in protected areas.
The Bill changes the core functions of DOC, requiring them to enable the economic use and development of PCL 'to the greatest extent practicable'. This is a paradigm shift in how public conservation land has been managed and means that conservation values may be sacrificed if the economic benefits of a proposed use or development are considered significant enough.
It is NZAC's opinion that the language of the Bill alters the priority of management of PCL from the existing legislation, which is conservation first, recreation second and tourism and commercial interests a distant third and fourth. The Bill instead lifts economic development to equal standing with conservation at every level, while recreation is barely mentioned. As a climbing club we are duty-bound to defend the value of recreation and are against the apparent relegation of its status. However, we also acknowledge that conservation is the highest value proposition in PCL and that is what should be prioritised above all. We'd like to see the existing legislated priority maintained throughout the language of the new legislation.
Other major concerns are the ability for 60% of PCL to be eligible for ‘disposal’ (selling) or ‘exchange’ (swapping for other land as long as there is a ‘net conservation benefit’) as well as the lack of public consultation opportunities for iwi, the New Zealand Conservation Authority, Conservation Boards and the public. While national parks and wilderness areas are exempted from this, the remaining 60% of PCL is a significant area of land and often borders the national parks where we undertake recreational activities.
What this means for climbers is that crags, peaks and valley access situated on PCL may be jeopardised by parcels of land being sold or exchanged. The streamlining of the process for this means such disposals or exchanges would be largely at the relevant minister's discretion and with reduced independent oversight and public hearing processes. This reduces the opportunity for allowing climbers to identify the value a parcel of land might contain from our recreational standpoint. As this value is not always apparent from looking at a map or from a non-climbing perspective, there is a real access risk here.
What can you do?
You can make an individual submission for consideration by the select committee as part of the law making process. As noted above, there are only two weeks remaining to do this. We encourage climbers to visit the parliament website here to read the proposed law and make a submission before the end of 2nd July.
If you'd like to quickly make a submission without having to draft your own language, here are a few short points you might wish to use:
Recreation is not a value the Bill has considered. Enabling economic development has been written in as a purpose of DOC, the national policy statement, area plans and concessions. Recreation has no equivalent standing. It must be a mandatory consideration in every decision, ranked ahead of tourism and commercial use.
Recreation is ignored when land is sold or swapped. Land can be disposed of unless it is “the best example” of its type. Climbing crags are rarely on the best example of a landscape, and where they are, that land is usually already protected for other reasons. So the test does nothing for the terrain we use, and the Bill is silent on recreation in disposal decisions. Recreational value and public access must be a required test before any land leaves the estate.
“Minor boundary adjustments” can remove access to a crag. The Minister can sell or exchange small parcels of land, with no public notice and none of the usual tests. A parcel that looks trivial on a map can hold a crag or an access route. These need a size cap, public notice, and an exclusion for protected land.
Alpine stewardship land has no protection from sale. Around 60% of conservation land is left off the protected list, including much of the stewardship land beside our national parks. Stewardship land with real recreation value should be added to the exempted list.
What does the Bill get right?
It is important to note that not all aspects of the Bill are considered negative by NZAC. While we have great concern over the relegation of recreational values and the advancing of economic use to sit alongside conservation values, changes in language in the Bill are possible to reduce these concerns. We are also supportive of:
Volunteer and club trips stay exempt from concessions, so our own programmes and member instruction are not affected. A club recovering its costs from members does not count as commercial use.
Land cannot be sold unless several tests are all met, and the Director-General can veto a sale outright.
Existing Treaty settlement protections are carried through in full.