"We clarified that far from being ‘scrubby’ land as one Minister has said publicly, most stewardship land has outstanding ecological and landscape values. Denigrating its qualities to justify coal mining is totally misleading,” said Environmental Defence Society CEO Gary Taylor.

“Stewardship land covers 9% of our country. It is public conservation land that has been “parked” pending final decisions as to its classification. That process is well underway. Some of it will become National Park or be given another highly protective status. Much of it will be covered by Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act, rendering it unavailable for mining.

“Also, most of the land acquired over many years by the Nature Heritage Fund has been parked in the stewardship category, awaiting final designation. This is land that the public has campaigned to protect and is truly outstanding.

“A large proportion of Te Wāhipounamu South West New Zealand World Heritage Area is stewardship land. This is described by UNESCO as ‘the largest and least modified area of New Zealand's natural ecosystems’ and ‘the world’s best intact modern representation of the ancient biota of Gondwana’.

“We presented the Prime Minister with a memorandum that summarized the situation, and we now expect that Ministers will accurately describe the values of such areas,” Mr Taylor concluded.

The Minister of Conservation is expected to complete a review of some 644,000 ha of stewardship land on the West Coast later this year.