Summary
The Te Urewera Act 2014 establishes that Te Urewera, a region of forested hill country in the North Island of New Zealand, as a legal entity with its own rights, powers, duties, and liabilities. The Act removes Te Urewera from Crown ownership and ends its designation as a national park, recognizing instead that the land “is ancient and enduring, a fortress of nature, alive with history,” and cannot be owned in the traditional legal sense.
Background:
Te Urewera is a vast region of forested hill country in the North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand. Prior to 2014, it was managed as Crown land and designated a national park. The Te Urewera Act 2014 fundamentally restructured this framework by declaring that Te Urewera “is ancient and enduring” and cannot be owned, and by creating the Te Urewera Board to act as the land’s governance authority. The Board replaces the Department of Conservation and is responsible for acting “on behalf of and in the name of Te Urewera,” with its membership shifting over time from equal Crown–Tūhoe representation to majority Tūhoe governance.
Jurisprudential Framing:
The Act reflects a significant jurisprudential shift toward an ecocentric and relational model grounded in Māori worldviews and customary law. By recognizing Te Urewera as a legal entity, the law affirms a non-property approach to land and embeds Indigenous concepts of kinship, responsibility, and guardianship into statutory law. It requires the Board to consider and appropriately provide for the relationships of iwi and hapū, and their cultural traditions, when making decisions affecting the area.
Impact Statement
The Te Urewera Act 2014 set a global legal precedent for ecosystem personhood grounded in Indigenous legal traditions and co-governance, influencing later developments such as the personhood recognition of Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River). It became one of the foundational models for contemporary Rights of Nature legislation and personhood frameworks worldwide.
Related Initiatives
Suggested Citation:
Kauffman, Craig, Catherine Haas, Alex Putzer, Shrishtee Bajpai, Kelsey Leonard, Elizabeth Macpherson, Pamela Martin, Alessandro Pelizzon & Linda Sheehan. Eco Jurisprudence Monitor. V2. 2025. Distributed by the Eco Jurisprudence Monitor.https://ecojurisprudence.org/initiatives/te-urewera-act-2014/.
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