Department of Geography, University of Otago, New Zealand
Abstract
Protection of native vegetation on private land is particularly important for biodiversity conservation because most of the conservation land in public ownership is 300m or more above sea level. It is thus representative of higher altitude ecosystems. Almost all New Zealand's lower altitude areas are in private ownership. Maintaining current levels of indigenous biodiversity means, in practice, persuading many of the nation's farmers and forest landowners to retain or restore native bush and wetlands on their land
