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Te Hauturu-o-Toi/Little Barrier Island Conservation Management Plan (PDF, 3,649K)

Summary

The Hauturu-ō-Toi / Little Barrier Island Nature Reserve Management Plan has been approved by the Ngāti Manuhiri Settlement Trust and Auckland Conservation Board and became operative on Monday October 2, 2017.

In 1894 the Crown enacted the Little Barrier Island Purchase Act and used this legislation to forcibly purchase the island from the owners. In 1895, Hauturu-ō-Toi / Little Barrier Island became New Zealand's first Nature Reserve. Owners who refused to sell and refused to leave the island, were evicted by the Crown in 1896.

The Crown acknowledged, in the Ngāti Manuhiri Claims Settlement Act 2012, that it's actions in the 1890s breached the Treaty of Waitangi. The management plan is an important component of the measures to redress those breaches, included in the settlement legislation.

The settlement legislation recognises Ngāti Manuhiri as kaitiaki, or guardian, of the Hauturu-ō-Toi / Little Barrier Island Nature Reserve. It provides for co-governance of the reserve by the Ngāti Manuhiri Settlement Trust and Auckland Conservation Board through the development of the management plan.

The Hauturu-ō-Toi / Little Barrier Island Nature Reserve Management Plan is the second post Treaty settlement management plan to become operative and be implemented. It provides DOC with a guide for managing the Hauturu-ō-Toi / Little Barrier Island Nature Reserve, on behalf of all New Zealanders, under the governance of the Ngāti Manuhiri Settlement Trust and Auckland Conservation Board.