The Conservation Amendment Bill proposes making the Minister of Conservation the final authority on approving conservation management strategies (CMS) and national park management plans through the National Conservation Policy Statement (NCPS).

It inserts a requirement for the Department of Conservation to recognise the commercial value of operations on the conservation estate.

If passed, the statutory roles of conservation boards and the New Zealand Conservation Authority to develop, propose, and implement those plans will go.

In its place will be a single layer of 'area plans' to replace current CMS and plans, and national park management plans, with the final authority resting with the minister.

DOC Western South Island director of regional operations Owen Kilgour addressed the West Coast Conservation Board on Friday on the implications of that change.

Proposed changes include relegating the role of conservation boards to "an advisory role" for those matters, with the minister as the final decision maker.

Board chairman Dr Legge asked whether under the proposed amendments the minister can ignore advice from the boards and the conservation authority.

Mr Kilgour suggested any future plans or strategies developed will have to be consistent with the new NCPS.

"The plans that are developed would not be able to be inconsistent," he said.

Dr Legge noted that New Zealand has seen a succession of six conservation ministers in a "very short period of time" and there had not been any consistency in their approach.

"At the moment we have got checkpoints with the board and the NZCA (conservation authority). Those checkpoints are essentially gone because they are just in an advisory capacity.

"But we have no consistency with the ministers because if we have changed ministers, we can also change their velocity and policy advice to government, maybe even change the legislation," Dr Legge said.

Currently the conservation authority can change conservation policies by directing they be sent back to the West Coast Conservation Board.

DOC regulatory systems policy manager Ange Bell said the public will have to be consulted if future ministers want to change the National Conservation Policy Statement.

Board member Lisa Steenhauer asked if ministers had previously been in charge of decision making when it came to implementing strategies for conservation.

Ms Bell said it was not uncommon for ministers to be the final decision makers when it came to resource management on the conservation estate.

"There are precedents for having ministers as the decision makers ... and it is not uncommon for ministers to be approving that kind of national level direction."