Protecting Marlborough’s biodiversity
Elizabeth Roberts with a rare flowering Notospartium carmichaeliae or pink broom, on a Significant Natural Area
Marlborough’s growing number of Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) show the province’s uniqueness, with exceptionally diverse biodiversity.
Biodiversity Coordinator Mike Aviss told this month’s Environment and Planning Committee that nine new sites had been identified and mapped during the 2025/26 year, bringing the total in Marlborough to 974, covering 140,389 hectares.
The SNA programme protected the region’s ecological and indigenous biodiversity, Mr Aviss said.
The largest site was 2,537 hectares while the smallest was just half a hectare. They stretch from the top end of D’Urville Island in the north to the Waima/Ure river in the south, and west to Molesworth.
“We have a large number of sites across Marlborough,” he said. “It’s great to have private landowners involved in the restoration and protection of indigenous biodiversity.
“In Marlborough most of our really rare sites on lowland productive land are in private ownership, so these are really important in the big picture.”
Marlborough’s SNA programme was one of the longest running in the country, having started 25 years ago.
“It was pioneering in its time in that it is voluntary and its success owes a lot to that vision,” he said.
During the 2025/26 year 81 sites were monitored and Council invested nearly $200,000 to improve the condition of SNAs, which helped leverage a further $257,000 investment from landowners.
