The Government is proposing a greater use of covenants to protect environmentally significant areas of the South Island high country.
In a recent speech to the Federated Farmers high-country section annual conference in Christchurch, Acting Lands Minister Maurice Williamson delivered a clear message that given financial constraints, the Government would make greater use of covenant protection rather than buying leaseholders' interest in property through tenure review.
But he also said the Government should recognise that high-country farmers were successful stewards of the land and felt affection and pride living and working in the high country.
Mr Williamson said, in a speech delivered by Associate Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson, that the Government believed there were other ways important landscapes and inherent values could be protected, a view held by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (PCE) in a recent report on tenure review.
"We agree with the PCE that a wider range of land management models and, in particular, covenants, can be used to protect areas with high ecological values."
This was a view advocated by farmers and farming groups but opposed by conservation groups and previous governments.
Mr Williamson said farmers had shown their commitment to the high country by protecting 13,000ha through 42 Queen Elizabeth II National Trust open space covenants, supporting the development of new tools that combined farm production and biodiversity protection, and support of the Hieracium Control Trust.
But any use of covenants would need to be enforceable with strong penalties for non-compliance, he said.
"Farming and conservation can be complementary and covenants provide the tools to allow this to happen."
The Government was reviewing legislative requirements to ensure it matched its high-country policy.
That policy would recognise the role of leaseholders as stewards of the land and ensure rents were "aligned more closely with the earning capacity of properties".
The previous government had a different interpretation on how rents were set, saying rents should include a charge for amenity values, such as views and access to lakes.
Mr Williamson said he was waiting on the outcome of a Land Valuation Tribunal hearing on rent levels charged to Minaret Station, on Lake Wanaka, before changing rent-setting policy.