Pastoral Lease and Tenure Review - Questions and Answers
These questions and answers provide background information relating to Crown pastoral leases and tenure review.
You may also wish to refer to the Crown Pastoral Land Act 1998.
Pastoral leases
- How much high country pastoral land does LINZ administer?
- LINZ administers almost 1.6 million hectares of South Island high country land located from Marlborough to Southland.
- Who leases the land?
- High country Crown pastoral land is mainly leased to farmers. Each lease is for a term of 33 years, and farmers have a right to perpetually renew their leases.
- How were high country pastoral leases formed?
- The Land Act 1948 created pastoral leases as a form of land tenure. As part of their creation, some property rights were permanently transferred from the Crown, as owners of the land, to the leaseholder.
- What rights do leaseholders have over the land they lease?
- Leaseholders have a right to perpetual renewal of their leases, and they own any improvements (eg buildings and fencing) on the land, unlike some forms of leases.
The public has no automatic right of access to Crown land (including pastoral land) under the Land Act 1948 or Crown Pastoral Land Act 1998. This is different from most conservation land which allows free access.
The lessee's and the Crown's interests are not the same and therefore their values are not generally equal. Both parties pay each other to buy out their respective rights, and the size of these payments is determined by market valuations. Like any other landowner selling property, LINZ seeks independent market valuations when undertaking each transaction. - What is the position on the ownership of carbon on pastoral leases?
- Read about the ownership of carbon on pastoral leases (PDF 263KB)
Tenure review
- What is tenure review?
- Tenure review is a voluntary process under the Crown Pastoral Land Act 1998. It enables high country Crown pastoral land with conservation values to be freed from the lease and retained in full Crown ownership as public conservation land. It also enables farmers with perpetual leases on Crown pastoral land to seek freehold ownership of some areas of the land capable of productive economic use.
Once the review has been concluded the leaseholders and the Crown buy out each others' rights in the land. This is determined by independent market valuation. - What does tenure review achieve?
- Tenure review improves high country public access and recreation, as land returned to full Crown ownership is no longer constrained by a lease. It also enables land with significant inherent values to be protected through restoring it to full Crown ownership to be managed as public conservation land, or by the use of protective covenants administered by the Department of Conservation, the QEII National Trust or LINZ.
Tenure review has delivered important gains for conservation, public access, recreation, the establishment of high country parks, and the protection of distinctive and rare ecosystems. - Who manages tenure review?
- Tenure review is managed by LINZ.
- Who makes decisions on tenure review?
- The Commissioner of Crown Lands, who is statutorily independent, analyses and considers public submissions before making decisions that are in accordance with the Crown Pastoral Land Act 1998 (CPLA).
- How much land has been transferred into conservation estate and how much has been freeholded as a result of tenure review?
- As at 31 October 2010, substantive proposals have been put to leaseholders of 81 pastoral leases covering a total land area of approximately 432,000 hectares; of which approximately 209,000 hectares (48 percent) is designated as public conservation land and approximately 223,000 hectares (52 percent) as freehold.
Five additional pastoral leases covering approximately 126,000 hectares have been purchased outright by the Crown for conservation.
Tenure review allows a significant amount of land to be retained by the Crown for conservation purposes. - How is land freeholded through tenure review being used?
- Land already freeholded is enabling diversified economic activity which is benefiting communities and the wider economy, for example viticulture and tourism.
Some land continues to be used for farming. - Does tenure review result in intensive irrigation and farming?
- The Crown Pastoral Land Act 1998, which governs tenure review, does not allow decision-makers to take into account future use of land that is freeholded (without protective mechanisms) as a result of tenure review.
Use of land freeholded as a result of tenure review is a matter for regional and district planning processes under the Resource Management Act. - What is a sustainable management covenant?
- The Crown Pastoral Land Act 1998 provides for sustainable management covenants to promote long-term ecologically sustainable land management practices and address land degradation issues. These types of covenants are one of the tools that can be applied to land that is freeholded through tenure review.
- Once tenure review is entered into, does the Crown and the leaseholder need to complete the process?
- No, either party can withdraw from tenure review at any time before a substantive proposal is accepted.
- Who is consulted during tenure review?
- A range of parties, including the Department of Conservation, Fish and Game and iwi are consulted as proposals are developed.
All proposals are advertised for public comment before they are finalised, with all copies of submissions and the analysis of these submissions being public information and available on LINZ’s website to ensure transparency of the tenure review process. - How long do public submissions take to analyse?
- The time it takes to analyse public submissions for a particular tenure review preliminary proposal depends on the number received and their complexity.
