Stewardship Land is a type of public conservation land in New Zealand, which is stuck in a limbo state, after being transferred to the Department of Conservation (DOC) but not yet allocated a formal protection category.
Like other types of conservation land, Stewardship Land is administered by DOC under the Conservation Act 1987. [1]
As of November 2025, 30% of conservation land in New Zealand is classified as a Stewardship Area, which amounts to over 2.7 million hectares (27,000 km2) of land. [1] This includes:
Stewardship areas can be disposed off if they are deemed to have low or no conservation value. [4] [1] This process was invoked in 2011, where 200 hectares (2.0 km2) hectares [5] of land was privatised for construction of a skifield. [4] [6]
There are ongoing proposals for the construction of skifields and coal mines on conservation land, which would require those stewardship areas to be disposed of and privatised. [7]
In 2021, the Sixth Labour Government established a program to reclassify stewardship areas, [1] following a promise to ban new mines on conservation land. [4]
In 2022, public consultation was held for the first tranch of land, on the West Coast of the South Island. [8] The panel recommended that 54% of West Coast stewardship land should be converted to conservation parks, 28% to Historic Reserves, 12% to National Parks, and the remaining 6% to other classifications. [8] Only 66 hectares (0.01%) is proposed to be disposed.
As of 2025, there has been no further progress, following a change of government. [9] Instead, there is renewed interest to allow mining on conservation land, [10] [11] and allow up to 60% of all conservation land to be delisted. [12]