The Green Party says public pressure has forced the Coalition Government to retreat on some of the most controversial elements of its Conservation Amendment Bill — but warns the legislation still risks fundamentally changing the purpose of conservation land by placing greater emphasis on economic use.
Green environment spokesperson Lan Pham has welcomed the select committee’s decision to remove proposed conservation land exchange and disposal provisions, but says the remaining economic clauses mean the battle over the future of the conservation estate is far from finished.
At the centre of the Greens’ concern is wording requiring economic use to be enabled to the greatest extent practicable.
The party argues that language risks shifting conservation law away from protecting nature and towards extracting commercial value from publicly protected land.
Public pressure forces retreat
The Greens say the removal of the land disposal and exchange provisions represents a victory for the thousands of New Zealanders who mobilised against the proposed changes.
Pham says a Green Party petition opposing the legislation attracted more than 63,000 supporters, demonstrating significant public concern about opening conservation land to greater commercial exploitation.
The party says the Government should take the same approach to the remaining economic provisions and remove them before the Bill progresses further.
While the select committee changes narrow the legislation, the Greens argue they do not address what the party considers its underlying philosophical problem.
What is conservation land actually for?
The debate goes to the heart of what Aotearoa’s conservation estate is supposed to represent.
The Greens argue conservation land exists first and foremost to protect indigenous species, ecosystems, landscapes and natural heritage for current and future generations.
The party fears inserting stronger economic objectives into conservation legislation could alter how future decisions are made.
A commercial proposal might promise jobs, tourism income, infrastructure or royalties.
But conservation decisions can also involve values that are difficult to express on a balance sheet — biodiversity, habitat protection, water quality, landscape, cultural significance and the survival of threatened species.
Pham says requiring economic use to be pursued to the greatest extent practicable risks changing the weighting given to those competing interests.
Government says economic activity and conservation can coexist
The Coalition Government’s broader approach has been to argue that conservation and economic activity do not necessarily have to be mutually exclusive.
Activities including tourism concessions already operate across parts of the conservation estate, while infrastructure and other commercial activities can be permitted under existing arrangements.
The political disagreement is therefore not simply about whether any economic activity should occur.
It is about how prominent economic development should become within the legislation governing conservation land and whether conservation remains the overriding purpose.
The Greens say the proposed wording moves that boundary too far.
Conservation battle part of a much bigger environmental fight
Pham is placing the Bill within the Government’s wider environmental record.
The Greens point to reductions in environmental agency spending and staffing, changes to resource management laws and other reforms they say have weakened environmental protections.
The party also opposes the Government’s efforts to expand opportunities for mining and resource development.
Pham says removing the disposal provisions while retaining the economic purpose clauses does little to ease those wider concerns.
The Government has consistently argued its reforms are intended to make decision-making faster, improve economic productivity and reduce regulatory barriers while retaining necessary environmental safeguards.
That philosophical divide is becoming one of the clearest environmental fault lines heading towards Election 2026.
Mining on conservation land remains flashpoint
Mining remains particularly contentious.
The Greens are continuing to promote a Member’s Bill that would prohibit mining on public conservation land.
The party has also committed to strengthening protection of the conservation estate if it enters government.
For mining supporters, New Zealand’s mineral resources represent potential jobs, export earnings, regional investment and greater access to critical minerals.
For opponents, the question is whether land specifically protected for conservation should ever be opened to potentially destructive extractive industries.
The Greens’ answer is no.
For Māori, whenua is more than an economic asset
The debate has another important dimension for Māori.
Much of Aotearoa’s conservation estate sits within landscapes carrying deep whakapapa connections for iwi and hapū.
Maunga, ngahere, awa, roto and coastal environments can contain wāhi tapu, mahinga kai, traditional pathways and places central to tribal histories and identity.
That means decisions about conservation land cannot simply be reduced to a choice between environmental protection and economic return.
Questions of mana whenua, kaitiakitanga and Te Tiriti also arise.
For some iwi and Māori businesses, economic opportunities associated with tourism, renewable energy or sustainable development on or around conservation land may be welcomed.
For others, mining or intensive commercial activity may be fundamentally incompatible with their responsibilities to protect particular whenua.
The challenge for any new conservation regime is ensuring Māori are not treated simply as another stakeholder in decisions involving ancestral landscapes.
Te taiao does not have a quarterly balance sheet
One of the difficulties with measuring the economic value of conservation land is that many of its greatest benefits are long term.
Healthy forests store carbon.
Wetlands filter water and reduce flooding.
Native ecosystems support biodiversity.
Protected landscapes underpin a significant part of New Zealand’s international tourism identity.
And intact whenua can carry cultural value across generations.
Destroying those assets can produce an immediate economic return while creating costs that last decades.
That is why the Greens argue conservation legislation must retain a clear hierarchy in which environmental protection comes first.
63,000 supporters send political warning
The Greens believe the scale of public opposition should serve as a warning to the Coalition.
Pham says New Zealanders have demonstrated they are prepared to mobilise when they believe public conservation land is threatened.
The removal of the disposal provisions suggests public submissions and political pressure have already influenced the Bill.
But the party is not declaring victory.
Instead, it is demanding the Government remove the remaining provisions promoting economic use before the legislation proceeds.
Election battle over what Aotearoa protects
The Conservation Amendment Bill is increasingly becoming part of a broader Election 2026 argument about economic development and environmental limits.
The Coalition is pursuing policies intended to unlock investment, infrastructure and natural resources.
The Greens argue that approach risks treating environmental protections as obstacles to economic growth rather than safeguards against irreversible damage.
And conservation land provides perhaps the clearest test of those competing philosophies.
There is already land throughout Aotearoa available for commercial development.
The question Parliament now faces is whether land specifically held for conservation should be governed by legislation requiring greater consideration of its economic potential.
The select committee has removed some of the provisions that generated the strongest opposition.
For the Greens, however, the crucial words remain.
If conservation law requires economic use to be pursued to the greatest extent practicable, the party says the argument is no longer simply about what activities can occur on conservation land — it is about whether conservation itself remains the priority.
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