Relevant New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy (NZBS) objectives
The work of the NHF contributes to the following objectives of the NZBS:

• Add to public conservation lands those ecosystems important for indigenous biodiversity that are not represented within the existing protected area network.
• Expand and modify existing funding mechanisms (including the Nature Heritage Fund) to meet current demand by landowners and communities where a priority, to protect ecosystems important for indigenous biodiversity.

The purpose of the NHF is to protect indigenous ecosystems that represent the full range of natural diversity originally present in the New Zealand landscape by providing incentives for voluntary conservation. Since 1990, the fund has protected over 100,000 hectares of indigenous ecosystems through direct land purchases, covenants on private land or fencing.

This country’s network of reserves, representing the natural diversity that was once present in New Zealand, has been greatly enhanced by the biodiversity funding allocated through the Nature Heritage Fund.

During the first four years of the biodiversity funding the Nature Heritage Fund added a total of 21,313 hectares of indigenous biodiversity to the existing protected area network and additional funding was provided for existing Nature Heritage Fund projects to secure a further 2,592 hectares.

The 2003/04 year was the most successful in the history of the Fund protecting over 45,000 hectares of which 10,018 hectares are directly attributable to the biodiversity funding. The Fund received applications for protection of biodiversity on private land from both government and private sources and funded a number of projects with joint venture partners from the community.

During the 2003/04 year 12 new projects were approved for biodiversity funding, protecting by acquisition and covenanting (in perpetuity) 10,018ha of land with high conservation values. Some of these projects are part of the government’s Public Wildlands Programme which has been designed to protect a wider variety of New Zealand’s most spectacular and valuable natural areas.”

The projects were well spread geographically, including protection of a 318ha wetland in Southland, 169ha of tussockland in Otago, 73ha of forest on Banks Peninsula, a strategic linkage of 370ha near Kaikoura, a small but important addition to the Kahurangi National Park of 68ha, a 758ha enclave surrounded by the Abel Tasman National Park near Takaka, a joint venture purchase with the Waipoua Forest Trust in Northland protecting 48ha, a further 430ha of podocarp forest on the Mangamuka Range in Northland and a highly successful joint venture project with the ASB Community Trust, the Auckland Regional Council and Auckland’s territorial local authorities to protect a 564 ha offshore island in the Hauraki Gulf.

You'll find more information about the Nature Heritage Fund, and application forms, on the DOC website.