Author Description

There has been substantial loss of indigenous habitat in New Zealand's coastal, lowland, and montane environments--and what does remain has little legal protection. We define five categories of environments that contain indigenous biodiversity most at risk of loss due to land clearance; risk was determined based on the level of legal protection and past habitat loss. Land clearance and loss of indigenous habitats continues across New Zealand, and highest rates of loss are occurring in the most threatened environments. Moreover, ecosystems in these most threatened areas support a disproportionate percentage of New Zealand's most threatened species and habitats. Thus, this pattern of clearance will exacerbate threats to biodiversity. We recommend that the Land Environments of New Zealand database (LENZ) be used to identify environments that are most threatened by land clearance. The Land Cover Database will need to be updated regularly to monitor progress in halting biodiversity declines.