Majority of Dunstan Downs to be preserved for conservation under tenure review

High country station Dunstan Downs. Photo / Supplied - Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand (LINZ)

RNZ

The majority of high country station Dunstan Downs across Canterbury and Otago is set to be preserved for conservation.

A tenure review agreement will see around 12,250 hectares, or 99 per cent of the station become conservation land.

Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) head of crown property Sonya Wikitera said public feedback informed the decision to make more of the pastoral lease conservation land and improve public access to the area.

Wikitera said it was significantly higher than the 9500 hectares proposed to become conservation land under the preliminary proposal.

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Tenure review is a voluntary process for pastoral leaseholders to enter and allows them the opportunity to purchase land capable of economic use, while land with high conservation values is protected and restored to full Crown ownership as conservation land.

The Dunstan Downs station is one of the highest percentages of a lease to become conservation land under tenure review.

Under the agreement, around 100 hectares will become private land owned by the leaseholder.

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It will increase protection of parts of the Dunstan, Wether and St Bathans Ranges, and the species that live there.

Wikitera said LINZ wanted to thank everyone who provided feedback on the preliminary proposal, and the leaseholder whose family had farmed the land for over 100 years in a way that had preserved its values.

Implementing the tenure review would take some time to allow for surveying of the land and to install fencing, she said.

- RNZ