Types of Crown property

As a Crown agency, we have a responsibility to preserve the value of the land and property under our stewardship. In some cases it’s about protecting and maintaining the land as it exists. In other cases it’s about maximising the land’s productive potential.

One aspect of our work involves managing the leases and licenses over Crown pastoral land for grazing stock. We also manage a portfolio of land under the Crown Forest Assets Act 1989 licenced to private sector forestry companies and held in trust for Treaty of Waitangi settlements. Some of our other work involves assessing and granting claims for property interests over coastal reclaimed land, and managing a range of activities involving riverbeds and lakebeds.

One of our most important responsibilities is to do with biosecurity – protecting Crown land from plant and animal pests such as rabbits, aquatic weeds, gorse, old man’s beard and wilding trees. Each year we develop control programmes to prioritise and manage these threats, and we carry out this work alongside landowners, regional councils and other agencies. 

The common thread linking all this work is our responsibility to ensure the most appropriate economic, environmental and recreational uses of our land for the benefit of all New Zealanders.