What’s in Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act 1991?
The conservation land categories included within Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act 1991 (“Sch 4”) comprise national parks, nature and scientific reserves, wilderness areas, sanctuary areas, wildlife sanctuaries, Ramsar Convention1 wetlands, and two specified ecological areas. Sch 4 also includes all Crown conservation land north of the Kopu-Hikuai Road and the foreshore on the Coromandel Peninsula ( and most adjacent offshore islands and Hauraki Gulf islands.
The land area of the areas covered by Sch 4 totals approximately 34,500 km2. In addition Sch 4 covers marine reserves, totaling 12,670 km2.
The special protection from minerals related activity provided by inclusion in Sch 4 is only afforded to those categories of conservation areas listed above that were already classified when the Act came into force in October 1 991 and to specific areas added by Order in Council in October 2008.
Check out this google map of Schedule 4 area of the Coromandel. Zoom in and look around.
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Sch 4 was not part of the Crown Minerals Act as originally enacted in 1991. It resulted from the combination of two Bills in 1997, the first a Government bill (introduced in 1990) that sought to ban mining in National Parks and the other a private members bill (introduced in 1995 by Judith Tizard) that sought to ban mining on the Coromandel Peninsula.
The bulk of the land was incorporated in Sch 4 at the time it was established in 1997, with a further 745,000 hectares of conservation land and 520,000 hectares of marine reserve added in October 2008 by Order in Council. Recently added areas include Kahurangi and Rakiura national parks and 24 marine reserves.
