Context

LENZ (Land Environments of New Zealand) was originally envisioned as a framework for conservation management that would take advantage of the natural relationship between the environment and species distributions. Rather than occurring randomly, species tend to occur in areas having similar environmental conditions. As a consequence, similar environments tend to support similar groups of plants and animals, provided they have not been substantially modified by human activity. Although LENZ was originally envisioned as a tool for biodiversity management, it has a much wider application. This is because the environmental factors that control the distributions of many land based plants and animals (temperature, water supply, availability of nutrients, etc.) are also factors that provide major constraints on human land uses such as agriculture, horticulture, and forestry.

Key findings

The amounts of indigenous cover in the LENZ Level 1 group were stable as at September 2018.

Less than 10% of lowland areas throughout the North Island and in the eastern South Island are protected.
Less than 1% of the eastern South Island plains and North Island lowlands are covered by indigenous vegetation and protected.
Based on the New Zealand Land Cover Database v4.1 (LCDB v4.1), there have been minimal land use changes between 2008 and 2012.

Table 1. Percentage of environmental unit under indigenous vegetation and protected (Leathwick et al., 2002).

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LENZ Classification level 1	Land environment name	Threat classification	Total area of each LENZ Level I classification (ha)	Percent protected 2008	Percent indigenous in 2008 protected	Percent protected 2012	Percent indigenous in 2012 protected
A	Northern lowlands	Chronically Threatened	1,853,478.48	5.44%	4.76%	5.44%	4.76%
B	Central dry lowlands	Chronically Threatened	691,630.17	2.21%	1.19%	2.21%	1.19%
C	Western and southern North Island lowlands	Acutely Threatened	636,262.41	1.25%	0.94%	1.25%	0.94%
D	Northern hill country		2,103,297.34	20.66%	20.15%	20.66%	20.15%
E	Central dry foothills		1,323,344.49	29.96%	21.46%	29.96%	21.45%
F	Central hill country and volcanic plateau		5,245,897.89	18.80%	18.05%	18.80%	18.06%
G	Northern recent soils	Chronically Threatened	338,895.38	7.89%	5.17%	7.89%	5.17%
H	Central sandy recent soils		135,380.29	22.01%	20.79%	22.01%	20.79%
I	Central poorly-drained recent soils	Acutely Threatened	121,102.84	3.26%	2.02%	3.26%	2.02%
J	Central well-drained recent soils	Acutely Threatened	293,522.47	2.73%	1.08%	2.73%	1.08%
K	Central upland recent soils		160,771.06	29.47%	16.01%	29.47%	16.01%
L	Southern lowlands	Chronically Threatened	802,608.06	8.27%	7.21%	8.27%	7.21%
M	Western South Island recent soils		220,661.73	51.02%	45.09%	51.02%	45.10%
N	Eastern South Island plains	Acutely Threatened	2,044,921.36	1.18%	0.49%	1.18%	0.49%
O	Western South Island foothills and Stewart Island		1,415,944.33	82.60%	81.82%	82.60%	81.81%
P	Central mountains		3,248,187.34	75.73%	74.31%	75.73%	74.30%
Q	Southeastern hill country and mountains		3,277,209.39	25.18%	23.37%	25.18%	23.36%
R	Southern Alps		1,931,525.68	95.77%	95.72%	95.77%	95.71%
S	Ultramafic soils		33,513.42	93.40%	92.86%	93.40%	92.86%
T	Permanent snow and ice		157,155.93	97.96%	97.95%	97.96%	97.95%
Other*			211,421.53	20.96%	13.58%	20.96%	13.61%
Total			26,246,731.60	33.51%	32.01%	33.51%	32.01%

Showing 1 to 22 of 22 entries

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Definitions and methodology

The percentage of LENZ environments that are legally protected and under indigenous cover can be used to quantify the transformation of the New Zealand landscape and to assess the degree to which the potential for indigenous biodiversity is realised.

This measure combines three national datasets to produce a table that shows the overall changes in New Zealand’s native vegetation by environment type, in which places are grouped that are more similar to each other environmentally (Table 1). LCDB v4.1 was used to categorise indigenous versus modified vegetation for New Zealand as a whole, using land cover information from 2012. The LENZ database, which was developed by Landcare Research and is managed by the Ministry for the Environment, was used to classify the environment types. The legal protection dataset was used to calculate the proportion of legally protected areas and includes Department of Conservation (DOC)-managed land, Nga Whenua Rahui and Queen Elizabeth II National Trust (QE2) covenants, as at September 2018

Data quality

This measures is classified as a national indicator.

Relevance

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

Accuracy

This measure complies with the data quality guidelines used in New Zealand’s Environmental Reporting framework.

Outcomes Monitoring Framework

The Department of Conservation’s (DOC’s) Outcomes Monitoring Framework provides a platform on which DOC and others can assess outcomes in a clear, structured and transparent way (Lee et al., 2005). It has been developed as a logical hierarchy that is based on broad, overarching Outcomes, beneath which are nested Outcome Objectives, Indicators, Measures and Data Elements to provide ever increasing levels of detail. The framework is scalable, as the indicators and measures remain compatible and consistent whether applied locally, regionally or nationally.

The recently updated framework provides a roadmap for gathering information to meet the specific objectives of DOC and other agencies (McGlone and Dalley, 2015). The provision of a national framework with agreed outcomes, indicators and measures supports collaboration with land management and regulatory agencies, allowing for more integrated environmental policy and ‘State of the Environment’ reporting. DOC has partially implemented a national monitoring and reporting system, whereby priority indicators and measures are routinely used to report on progress against the objectives and outcomes. This factsheet reports on a measure for the 2017/2018 year.

Glossary of terms

LENZ (Land Environments of New Zealand) is an environmental classification intended to underpin a range of conservation and resource management issues.

References

Leathwick, J., Wilson, G., Rutledge, D., Wardle, P., Morgan, F., Johnston, K., McLeod, M., 2002. Land Environments of New Zealand.

Lee, W., McGlone, M., Wright, E., 2005. Biodiversity inventory and monitoring: A review of national and international systems and a proposed framework for future biodiversity monitoring by the Department of Conservation. Landcare Research Contract Report LC0405/122 (unpublished) for the Department of Conservation, Wellington.

McGlone, M., Dalley, J., 2015. A framework for Department of Conservation inventory and monitoring: Intermediate outcomes 1-5. Landcare Research Contract Report LC2427 (unpublished) for the Department of Conservation, Wellington.

Proportions of ecosystems protected and under indigenous cover

Proportion of Land Environments of New Zealand (LENZ) protected and under indigenous cover