New Zealand Conserves Largest Farm as Parkland

WELLINGTON, New Zealand, December 17, 2003 (ENS) - New Zealand's largest farm, once abandoned as wasteland, is to be permanently protected as a unique high country park, Prime Minister Helen Clark announced today. Conservationists have been lobbying for the protection of this property for its outstanding conservation, landscape and recreation values.

The farm, known as Molesworth Station, is located in South Marlborough on the eastern side of the South Island, a region with few public conservation areas. It encompasses more than 180,000 hectares (695 square miles) of mountains, rivers, wetlands, lakes and tussock grasslands.

"The government's decision will permanently protect a spectacular New Zealand landscape that is on the eastern side of the South Island From July 2005, management of Molesworth will transfer to the Department of Conservation (DOC) from Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) which now manages the property as a Crown special lease.

At Molesworth today Clark made the announcement with both ministers responsible - Land Information Minister John Tamihere and Conservation Minister Chris Carter - on hand to enjoy the landscape.

Molesworth Station, on New Zealand's South Island (Photo courtesy Molesworth Station Tours)

"In recent years this has begun to change. There has been a growing recognition that Molesworth has a natural, recreational and historical significance beyond the economic value of its huge farming operation," the Prime Minister said.

Molesworth supports the country's biggest herd of beef cattle, but Carter said the property also contains an important spectrum of biodiverse plants and animals. "Molesworth lies in the center of South Marlborough, one five hotspots for New Zealand's biodiversity," he said. "A very high proportion of species found in the area are found nowhere else in the world."

Molesworth is inhabited by 75 plant, lizard and insect species that are threatened with extinction, including one plant species that lives only in the station and nowhere else in New Zealand, Carter said.

"Many of these species have evolved over aeons, surviving numerous ice ages. The permanent protection of Molesworth as a reserve will enable DOC to increase the focus on protecting these species and informing the public about them," Carter said.

Land Information Minister John Tamihere thanked LINZ personnel for their stewardship of the station where 7,000 cattle are grazed profitably on about one-third of the land.

"Not so many years ago the station was abandoned by farmers as a wasteland, riddled with rabbits," he said. "Careful management has turned that around," said Tamihere.

About 47,000 hectares (180 square miles) of Molesworth are to be designated as conservation zones, and the DOC will begin an intensive program of pest and weed control to restore them.

Molesworth Station is already a tourist destination. (Photo courtesy Back Country Safaris)

Molesworth has tourism potential, Clark said. "It lies between the Nelson/Marlborough, Kaikoura and Hurunui tourism areas, and is on the main route south from Picton. Although just a small part of the station was open to public access for only six weeks of last summer, Molesworth attracted 7,000 visitors."

The Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand agrees. The country's largest conservation organization, Forest and Bird has been lobbying the government to protect Molesworth.

“It would open up Molesworth’s sweeping and spectacular open landscapes for public enjoyment, protect its unusual dryland plant communities, and enable greater public involvement in Molesworth’s management,” said Forest and Bird field officer Eugenie Sage.

Under the Department of Conservation the public could participate through conservation boards, the statutory process for preparation of a management plan, and submissions on concession applications, Forest and Bird maintains.

Molesworth is strategically important for conservation, says the organization, as it is at heart of the only area in mainland New Zealand where it would be possible to establish a continuum of public protected lands from the east coast to the west coast.

Molesworth could become a model for sustainable farming in the dryland environments of the eastern high country, Forest and Bird says, with grazing and farm development only in areas that do harm indigenous short tussock grasslands and shrublands. Destocking some areas should better promote soil conservation - a key objective for the property given its history, the conservation group says.