Department of Conservation

The Department of Conservation is the public service department of New Zealand charged with the conservation of New Zealand's natural and historical heritage.An advisory body, the New Zealand Conservation Authority is provided to advise DOC and its ministers. In addition there are 13 conservation boards for different areas around the country that provide for interaction between DOC and the public.FunctionOverviewThe department was formed in 1988, as one of several reforms of the public service, when the Conservation Act 1987 was passed to integrate some functions of the Department of Lands and Survey, the Forest Service and the Wildlife Service. This Act also set out the majority of the Department's responsibilities and roles.As a consequence of Conservation Act all Crown land in New Zealand designated for conservation and protection became managed by the Department of Conservation. This is about 30% of New Zealand's land area or about 8 million hectares of native forests, tussocklands, alpine areas, wetlands, dunelands, estuaries, lakes and islands, national forests, maritime parks, marine reserves, nearly 4000 reserves, river margins, some coastline, and many offshore islands. All of the land under its control is protected for either conservation, ecological, scenic, scientific, historic or cultural reasons, and for recreation.Providing for recreation is a major part of its core work, and this covers the management of family picnic sites, as well as maintaining rugged backcountry tracks and over 1000 accompanying backcountry huts that are used by hunters and recreational trampers. DOC also administers the Nature Heritage Fund, and is responsible for rural fire control.