It would be inappropriate to ''jump in'' and reclassify the Snowdon Forest area before making the decision on the monorail proposal, Conservation Minister Nick Smith said yesterday.
He was commenting following the call by Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Jan Wright for greater protection of stewardship land with significant conservation value and for the Conservation Minister to take responsibility for decisions relating to the land.
One-third of the conservation estate was classified as stewardship land. It had the weakest legal protection of all categories of conservation land, she said.
''The relatively weak legal protection of stewardship land quite naturally signals to the private sector that this part of the conservation estate is 'open for business','' Dr Wright said in a report released yesterday.
The land could be swapped for other areas of private land and needed only to be managed so its ''natural and historic resources are protected''.
It was classified that way during the creation of the Department of Conservation in 1987 with the intention it would be assessed for its conservation value, then be reclassified, but it had never been done, she said.
In Otago there are more than 500 pieces of the conservation estate, 232,025ha, that is legally classified as stewardship land with about 52 of those, 45,332ha, listed as having ''priority ecosystems'' - areas Doc judged to be the ''most effective places to work to ensure a representative range of ecosystems are protected''.
Save Fiordland immediate past chairwoman Daphne Taylor said while Snowdon Forest had additional international and domestic protection, it needed more given its stewardship status.
''Snowdon Forest should be at the top of the list, I think. It's biodiversity value is huge . . ..
"It is a buffer zone between agricultural land and the rest of the World Heritage area.''
If the Government used its stewardship status to approve the monorail application it would open itself up to judicial review, she said.
Federated Mountain Clubs of New Zealand acting president Peter Wilson, of Dunedin, said some stewardship lands which developers and miners considered valueless were ''very, very special'', such as the Snowdon Forest.
''Much high-quality tramping land on the West Coast, which most trampers would consider secure, is actually at risk.''
Dr Smith said the stewardship classification for Snowdon Forest would not necessarily make the decision easier, as he would also be weighing up the conservation values of the area, the recreational impact and the benefits of the monorail.
Of the 2.5 million ha of stewardship land in New Zealand, 30% had been reclassified since 1987 - including 250,000ha since 2008.
He had passed Dr Wright's report on to Doc to see if there were areas of high conservation values which needed to be reclassified.
There would always be some conservation land that would be managed by Doc as stewardship land, he said.
He would continue to make decisions on major land decisions but could not be involved in every minor decision, Dr Smith said.
